As NC3 Modernization Outruns International Law, a New Book Proposes a Code of Conduct
A January 2026 report from the Federation of American Scientists, On the Precipice: Artificial Intelligence and the Climb to Modernize Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications, lays out the problem in stark terms. Even as the United States works to modernize its ageing NC3 architecture — replacing Cold War-era satellites, radars, and airborne command posts — the report documents that Russia continues to field counterspace weapons and has repeated nuclear threats tied to the war in Ukraine, while China expands toward near-peer arsenal status without ever having joined a major arms control agreement. In 2025, USSTRATCOM Commander Gen. Anthony Cotton publicly committed to keeping a human "in the loop" for nuclear initiation decisions, and Section 1638 of the FY2025 NDAA now requires that AI use not compromise nuclear safeguards. The message from Washington's own defence establishment is that NC3 modernization is outrunning any settled framework — legal or otherwise — for how it should be governed.
That is precisely the gap Professor Emily Crawford's new book, A Code of Conduct for Nuclear Command, Control, and Communication: Lessons from Informal International Law-Making, sets out to close. Rather than simply cataloguing the problem, Crawford reviews how each nuclear-armed state structures its NC3 systems and which existing international law regimes — the law on the use of force, the conduct of hostilities, international criminal law — already touch on nuclear operations without comprehensively regulating them. Because no binding treaty specifically covers NC3, she turns to the precedent of informal international law-making elsewhere in the law of armed conflict, and uses it to draft a complete, text-ready code of conduct in the book's concluding chapters.
For readers building out this area of a collection, the book offers three concrete starting points: a state-by-state survey of current NC3 arrangements useful for comparative courses and briefings; a worked methodology, drawn from past non-binding instruments, for how governments and civil society can build consensus around rules that no treaty currently provides; and a complete draft code of conduct that defence and foreign ministry legal advisers can use directly as a negotiating text rather than only a point of critique.
For academic and government law libraries, this is a rare case of a monograph arriving with its own proposed instrument attached, not just analysis of the problem — making it a natural acquisition for international law, security studies, and government documents collections alike, and a strong complement to existing holdings in international humanitarian law and arms control.
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Q&A
What is Nuclear Command, Control and Communication (NC3)?
NC3 refers to the systems, procedures, and chains of authority a nuclear-armed state uses to detect threats, decide on nuclear weapons use, and communicate and execute that decision.
Why is NC3 governance an urgent topic in 2026?
Recent reporting shows NC3 modernization — including AI-assisted systems — advancing faster than the international legal frameworks meant to govern it, against a backdrop of heightened nuclear risk tied to Russia's war in Ukraine and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.
Does any binding treaty currently regulate NC3 specifically?
No. General international law regimes touch on aspects of nuclear weapons use, but the book identifies no binding instrument that comprehensively covers NC3 operations — the gap its proposed code of conduct addresses.
Who is this book written for?
International law and security studies scholars, defence and foreign ministry legal advisers, international humanitarian law practitioners, and the academic and government libraries that support them.
Where can I buy A Code of Conduct for Nuclear Command, Control, and Communication?
You can order this title directly from CLNZ Books with secure worldwide shipping, payment by credit card or PayPal, and institutional invoicing available on request.