Stockholm Initiative

The Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament is a ministerial-level grouping convened by Sweden in June 2019 to inject political momentum into nuclear disarmament ahead of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. Its founding meeting in Stockholm produced a joint declaration calling for concrete, implementable "stepping stones" toward a world without nuclear weapons.

The initiative brings together non-nuclear-weapon states from multiple regions, including Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Ethiopia. Membership has shifted slightly across ministerial meetings, which have rotated through Berlin (2020), Amman (2021), Madrid (2022), and other capitals.

Its core deliverable is the "stepping stones" approach: a package of pragmatic, near-term measures that nuclear-weapon states and others could adopt to reduce risks and rebuild trust. Typical proposals include:

• Negative security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon states
• Transparency on warhead stockpiles and doctrines
• Risk-reduction measures, including improved crisis communications
• Diminished role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines
• Verification research and fissile material controls
• Universalisation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

The Stockholm Initiative deliberately positions itself as a bridge between states that have joined the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and those that rely on extended nuclear deterrence. Several members, such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, are NATO allies, while others, like New Zealand and the Philippines, are TPNW signatories. This mixed composition is meant to demonstrate that incremental disarmament progress is possible without forcing states to choose between competing legal frameworks.

Critics argue the "stepping stones" remain modest and have produced limited concrete results, particularly given the 2022 NPT Review Conference's failure to adopt a consensus outcome document amid Russian objections linked to the war in Ukraine.