Digests and Blog

Two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate set off a state-wide debate about the whether to resume nuclear weapons testing, leading to calls from key opinion leaders for them to reverse their position. The Salt Lake Tribune reported last Thursday that Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater, the two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in Utah, indicated possible support for future underground nuclear testing. Mike Lee signed a "Peace Through Strength" pledge, organized by conservative think-tanks, which supports, "a robust defense posture including a safe, reliable, effective nuclear…

The CTBT, as a key tenet of the nonproliferation regime, has been a noticeable part of the conversation at this month's NPT Review Conference in New York. Below is an index of opening statements from countries that cite the CTBT as a requirement of reinvigorating the NPT: African Group Algeria Australia Austria Bangladesh Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Chile China Colombia Croatia Denmark Estonia European Union France Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Holy See Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Kazakhstan…

The Jakarta Post reported today that Indonesia plans to ratify the CTBT soon, despite previous announcements that the country would wait to ratify the treaty until the United States Senate voted to ratify. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the Indonesian House of Representatives yesterday that he will officially announce the ratification during the NPT Review Conference next month in New York. "We have been holding off the ratification process since 2002 as we expected the US and other nuclear weapons states to ratify first," said Natalegawa. "However, we decided there was no…

The new Nuclear Posture Review represents a significant boost to the political and substantive case for Senate ratification of the CTBT. One of the most dramatic turnarounds from George W. Bush's 2001 NPR is the 2010 NPR's support of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) ratification and entry into force. Another is the prohibition on new nuclear warhead development and declining the pursuit of new military missions or new military capabilities for the warheads. The 2001 NPR sought to provide the president with a broader range of nuclear weapons employment options, reportedly calling for…

On Monday, the Utah House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution urging the U.S. Senate to give its advice and consent for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The resolution, HR4, was introduced by Democratic Representative Jennifer Seelig, and co-sponsored by Republican Representative Ryan Wilcox, Democrat Trisha Beck, and Republican Rebecca Edwards. Several Utahns spoke in favor of the test ban at hearing on the resolution, including a "downwinder" whose family had died due to nuclear testing-related effects. The nonbinding Utah House resolution notes that the…

Yesterday, Congressman Michael Turner, ranking Republican member on the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, released three letters from the directors of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory written at his request on their views on the unclassified executive summary of December 2009 report of the JASON group of independent scientific experts on the stockpile stewardship program. (Click here for the summary of the report.) None of the lab directors’ letters contradict the fundamental finding of the unclassified JASON…

In a press release yesterday, the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) highlighted the International Monitoring System's (IMS) contribution of vital data to the rapid alerts issued by tsunami warning centers following the catastrophic 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile early on February 27. About 20 seismic and hydroacoustic IMS stations sent data in real time to warning centres in the Pacific, helping the centers issue alerts to Latin American countries and the wider Pacific region. "The CTBTO monitoring data has proven to be the speediest and…

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently released an update (dated January 6, 2010, as there is often a delay between the update and release) of its "Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments" report. Have a look here.

Remarks of Vice President Biden National Defense University Washington, DCFebruary 18, 2010 The Path to Nuclear Security: Implementing the President’s Prague Agenda Ladies and gentlemen; Secretaries Gates and Chu; General Cartwright; Undersecretary Tauscher; Administrator D’Agostino; members of our armed services; students and faculty; thank you all for coming. Many statesmen have walked these grounds, including our Administration’s outstanding National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones. You taught him well. George Kennan, the scholar and diplomat, lectured at the National War College…

Today, Vice President Joe Biden delivered a major policy speech in Washington on the Obama administration's strategy for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In his remarks, Biden said that the questions raised when the CTBT was last considered by the Senate a decade ago have been successfully addressed, and he reiterated the administration's commitment to win Senate approval for U.S. ratification of the treaty. "The test ban treaty is as important as ever," Biden told a full audience at Fort McNair's National Defense University, including…