Non-harming (ahiṃsā) is central to Buddhism, which is widely associated with conflict prevention and the cultivation of peace. Yet Buddhist traditions of statecraft also recognize that rulers are responsible for protecting their populations from internal disorder and external aggression. They do not therefore tend to support a doctrine of absolute pacifism or unilateral disarmament. Rather, they point towards a middle path of harm minimization which includes the maintenance of a strong military deterrent to prevent war and, as a last resort, defend the state.

Nuclear weapons test this accommodation to its limits. Their deterrent effect depends on the threat of catastrophic and largely indiscriminate harm in retaliation, while their possession creates risks of accident, miscalculation, sabotage, unauthorized use and escalation, potentially heightening instability. Nuclear weapons are therefore difficult to reconcile with Buddhist commitments to compassion, restraint and non-harming, even where their possession may appear strategically necessary to deter aggression.

This article argues that Buddhist ethics may nevertheless leave room for nuclear deterrence under strict conditions where states face serious or existential threats and lack credible alternative means of protection. Such deterrence must be embedded within policies of diplomacy, military restraint, defense alliances, multilateral arms control and development of discriminate defensive technologies that progressively reduce reliance on nuclear threats. Acceptance of nuclear deterrence is also therefore provisional, and subject to continual reassessment as security dynamics change.

The article has been published open access in the Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament based at the Research Centre for Nuclear Abolition based at Nagasaki University. It forms part of a special issue of journal called “Beyond Deterrence: Religious Ethics and the Pursuit of Peace in the Nuclear Age”.

The Buddhism and Nuclear Deterrence article can be accessed here.

Andrew Bartles-Smith is an independent researcher, Associate Fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) at the University of York, and a member of the advisory board of the Beyond Compliance Consortium. He is co-editor of the book Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law (Routledge, 2023), and the author of several peer-reviewed articles on religion and international humanitarian law (IHL). He previously worked for many years with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Asia, where he developed innovative approaches to armed group and religious circles engagement, and spearheaded research and debate on religious traditions and IHL.