Institutional Change and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

How does change manifest itself in international security institutions? Scholars in political science attribute a distinctive character to these cooperative arrangements, citing concerns over sovereignty and relative gains as obstacles to their establishment. This dissertation suggests that this 'security exceptionalism' holds through the life of a negotiated arrangement as well, providing an intrinsic mechanism that limits the presence, extent, and scope of change. Security institutions exhibit an amplified form of path dependence.;The consideration of change has long presented a challenge for scholars in the field; the variable is underrepresented even in institutional theories. The limited literature on the topic is rarely drawn from high-politics affairs, particularly security. This dissertation seeks to redress this lacuna. It develops a theoretical framework with which to operationalize institutional change, focusing on its sources, shapes, and effects as exemplified in a landmark security institution---the nuclear non-proliferation regime. It derives contrasting pathways of change from the logics provided by the major schools of thought in International Relations.;The durability and strength of the arrangement centered on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty defy expectations. Still, notable incidences of failure in the post-Cold War era present a contradiction, demanding context regarding its adaptive prowess. There remains an absence of dedicated, systematic explorations of the regime's pathway of change to date. This dissertation employs the aforementioned framework to study 1) select substantive issue-areas within the treaty, 2) the segmented life cycles of the regime. It utilizes archival work and first-person accounts to extrapolate from the regime's past conclusions about its adaptive capabilities.;The dissertation finds that the remarkable longevity of the non-proliferation regime to date is somewhat of an illusion. Changes agreed upon to date have been of a low-cost variety. Yet, this limited responsiveness is ill-fit for the current nuclear context, which demands an innovative adaptability and reorientation that appear unlikely. Broader external conditions have rendered the regime increasingly anachronistic; overall, this dissertation relates a pessimistic outlook for its future prospects.