"I want to tell you that your fact sheet on the [Missile Technology Control Regime] is very well done and useful for me when I have to speak on MTCR issues."
Alicia Sanders-Zakre
Authored by on January 5, 2018
Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Stimson Center, highlights the importance of the norms against nuclear use and testing in a Jan. 4 blog post. While applauding UNSCR 2310 as a step in the right direction, he regrets that it does not prevent “boll weevils with the Trump Administration and on Capitol Hill” from seeking to tear down impediments to resuming nuclear testing. To continue to bolster the nuclear testing taboo, he recommends reinvigorating CTBT Article XIV conferences, which focus on advancing towards the treaty’s entry into force. The full article is available here.
Authored by on January 2, 2018
Sarah Bidgood, senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, and Susan le Jeune d’Allegeerschecque, British High Commissioner to Canada, extol the value of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization Youth Group in an editorial published Jan. 1 in Teen Vogue. The group, launched in 2016, includes more than 300 students and young professionals from around the globe and seeks to promote the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and its verification regime. The authors emphasize the role of virtual and personal relationships among members in understanding and…
Authored by on December 7, 2017
The United States appeared to walk back its support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) at the 2017 UN General Assembly First Committee, which discusses disarmament issues. The United States abstained on an annual resolution expressing support for the CTBT, which it had voted for last year, although U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood explained to Arms Control Today that it had only done so because it the United States is undertaking a review of international treaties. It also sponsored a resolution introduced by Japan, which was revised from its 2016 version to weaken its call for the…
Authored by on December 6, 2017
(Updated from original version published July 6, 2017) One of the catalytic forces behind the pursuit and conclusion of the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in recent years has been the voices of the hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the people across the globe who have been adversely affected by more than seven decades of nuclear weapons production and testing. The preamble of the new prohibition treaty, which was opened for signature at UN headquarters in New York on September 20, notes “the unacceptable…
Authored by on December 1, 2017
Authored by on December 1, 2017
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Authored by on November 17, 2017
The final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law includes an amendment restricting the U.S. contribution for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), except for funds related to the International Monitoring System. The amendment was originally penned into the House version of the bill. Although it was absent from the Senate version, it was ultimately incorporated into the conferenced version of the bill as section 1279E. The House passed this compromise NDAA on Nov. 14, and the Senate followed suit on Nov. 16.…
Authored by on November 1, 2017
Authored by on November 1, 2017