Nuclear Reset - Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation (POSSE)

396<strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Reset</strong>: Arms Reduction and Nonproliferationearly as 1993 when it had withdrawn from the NPT, also failedto sign it. A poorly planned Clinton administration attempt to ratifythe Treaty in the Senate in 1999 was defeated. The Treaty was opposednearly unanimously by the Republican majority in the Senateat the time, who criticized not only the actual test ban, which theysaid was unacceptable from the standpoint of safety and reliabilityof the U.S. nuclear arsenal, but also the CTBT’s international verificationregime, which they pronounced ineffective. When GeorgeBush became president in 2001, his administration announced that,although the United States would continue to observe the moratoriumon nuclear testing, it did not intend to ratify the CTBTany time in the foreseeable future, and thus it would not participatein Treaty activities in areas that could be required followingentry of the Treaty into force, primarily related to the inspectioncomponent of the CTBT’s verification regime, which the UnitedStates simply refused to fund by unilaterally withholding paymentof the corresponding portion of its contribution to the annual budgetof the CTBTO Preparatory Commission.These and a number of other negative factors could not but negativelyimpact the efforts of the Preparatory Commission to create a verificationregime and drag the process out for much longer than the initiallyanticipated timeframe (3 years). Among these negative factorsmust be mentioned the worsening situation with respect to NorthKorea, which in 2003 withdrew from the NPT altogether and in 2006conducted its first nuclear test detonation. Against this backdrop, despiteregularly convened Conferences on Facilitating the Entry intoForce of the CTBT, the process of ratification of the CTBT by the nationslisted in Annex 2 first slowed, and then essentially halted.The Comprehensive <strong>Nuclear</strong> TestBan Treaty 15 Years OnMore than 15 years have passed since the Comprehensive <strong>Nuclear</strong>Test Ban Treaty was first opened for signature on September 24,1996. As of April, 2012, 183 states have signed the Treaty, of which157 have also ratified it. Of the 44 countries that still must ratifythe CTBT in order for it to enter into force, 36 have completedthe procedure for ratification, including France, Great Britain,Indonesia, and Russia. As of now, the Treaty has not yet been rati-