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China and India, as rising powers, have been proactive in seeking status as nuclear responsibles. Since the 1990s they have sought to demonstrate conformity with intersubjectively accepted understandings of nuclear responsibility within the global nuclear order, and have also sought recognition on the basis of particularistic practices of nuclear restraint. This article addresses two puzzles. First, nuclear restraint is at the centre of the pursuit of global nuclear order, so why have China and India not received recognition from influential members of the nuclear order for the full spectrum of their restraint-based behaviours? Second, why do China and India nonetheless persist with these behaviours? We argue that the conferral of status as a nuclear responsible is a politicised process shaped by the interests, values, and perceptions of powerful stakeholder states in the global nuclear order. China's and India's innovations are not incorporated into the currently accepted set of responsible nuclear behaviours because, indirectly, they pose a strategic, political, and social challenge to these states. However, China's and India's innovations are significant as an insight into their identity-projection and preferred social roles as distinctive rising powers, and as a means of introducing new, if nascent, ideas into non-proliferation practice and governance.

China and India, as rising powers, have been proactive in seeking status as nuclear responsibles. Since the 1990s they have sought to demonstrate conformity with intersubjectively accepted understandings of nuclear responsibility within the global nuclear order, and have also sought recognition on the basis of particularistic practices of nuclear restraint. This article addresses two puzzles. First, nuclear restraint is at the centre of the pursuit of global nuclear order, so why have China and India not received recognition from influential members of the nuclear order for the full spectrum of their restraint-based behaviours? Second, why do China and India nonetheless persist with these behaviours? We argue that the conferral of status as a nuclear responsible is a politicised process shaped by the interests, values, and perceptions of powerful stakeholder states in the global nuclear order. China's and India's innovations are not incorporated into the currently accepted set of responsible nuclear behaviours because, indirectly, they pose a strategic, political, and social challenge to these states. However, China's and India's innovations are significant as an insight into their identity-projection and preferred social roles as distinctive rising powers, and as a means of introducing new, if nascent, ideas into non-proliferation practice and governance.

Introduction : risks of great power conflict in the 21st century / Harald Müller, Carsten Rauch and Iris Wurm -- The concert of Europe and international security governance : how did it operate, what did it accomplish, what were its shortcomings, what can we learn? / Matthias Schulz -- Concerts as a mode of ordering in world politics : an ideal type approach / Adam Humphreys -- The dark side of the European concert of powers : caveats to be taken into account for successfully managing peace / Andreas Fahrmeir -- The dangers of great power connivance / Bertrand Badie -- The club practices of concert diplomacy : the paradox and effects of selective cooperation with global objectives / Mélanie Albaret and Delphine Lagrange -- The concert and existing organizations and legal structures at the global level / Stefan Kadelbach -- The normative foundations for a new global concert in an age of western retrenchment / Kyle Lascurettes and Sara B. Moller -- The concert of powers and competing government models / Hans-Joachim Spanger -- Just a concert or a just concert : the role of justice and fairness considerations / Harald Müller, Daniel Müller and Carsten Rauch -- The exclusion problem and the need for legitimacy / Konstanze Jüngling and Siddharth Mallavarapu -- Ownership matters in a 21st century concert of powers / Pang Zhongying and Mao Weizhun -- Between informality and formality : concert operations in a densely institutionalized world / Kanti Bajpai and Harald Müller -- Concert of concerts : the geopolitical role of regional inter-state organizations / Alexander Nikitin and Oleg Demidov -- Great power accommodation, nuclear weapons and concerts of power / Nicola Leveringhaus and Andrew Hurrell -- Managing power transitions with a concert of powers / Harald Müller and Carsten Rauch