The Middle East and North Korea: CTBT Hard Cases

10/19/2012
2012-10-19 by Richard Weitz The current nuclear crises involving Iran and North Korea make it unlikely that either of these two countries, or Egypt and Israel, will soon join the CTBT. Current U.S. priorities are rightly on preventing further North Korean nuclear tests as well as keeping Iran from developing…

CTBT Holdouts: The Asian Triangle

10/13/2012
2012-10-13 by Richard Weitz There are three key Asian states who have not jointed the CTBT regime. Each of these states in turn, China, India and Pakistan, are discussed in this article. And the prospects are not promising that they will join any time soon. China Until the end of the…

Russia and the CTBT: And the Future of Russian Nuclear Weapons

10/11/2012
2012-10-11 by Richard Weitz The Russian speakers at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference strongly backed universal ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and chastised the U.S. Senate for failing to ratify it. But Russia’s position regarding the CTBT is more complex than commonly presumed. The Russian Federation signed the…

The United States and the CTBT: The Prospects

10/08/2012
2012-10-08 By Richard Weitz At the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, most attention on bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force focused on how to secure U.S. ratification of the treaty. The participants from other countries found it convenient to blame Washington’s stubbornness for the CTBT’s failure to enter…

CTBT Verification Issues

09/27/2012
2012-09-26 By Richard Weitz The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) will have independent instruments for verifying and enforcing the treaty once it enters into force. These will supplement the verification provided by countries’ national technical means such as reconnaissance satellites as well as other intelligence collection systems. Much of the…

Revisiting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: An Agenda Item for the Next Administration

09/24/2012
2012-09-24 By Richard Weitz A major subject of discussion at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference was the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Whether to ratify the treaty will also be an issue for the next U.S. presidential administration. The CTBT prohibits all nuclear explosions, whether for military or other purposes, in…