E. Ifft¹

¹Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Abstract:

The CTBT and the Ban Treaty Edward Ifft The UNGA recently voted to authorize negotiation of a treaty banning nuclear weapons. This negotiation will end July 7, shortly after the conclusion of SnT 2017. It may appear that there would be little relationship between such a treaty and the CTBT, but there may be important technical, legal and political issues between the two. The Ban Treaty (BT) will ban the testing of nuclear weapons, so we may have in force a legally binding document that explicitly prohibits the testing of nuclear devices well before EIF of the CTBT. Efforts for and against the BT may distract from the CTBT. A strong case can be made that efforts to universalize and bring into force the CTBT should have priority. Also will the BT only refer to "testing," or will it explicitly specify "explosions?" Will operative terms be defined and obligations with respect to what is/is not allowed be exactly the same as in the CTBT? If not, the possibility of ambiguities and contradictions is clear. Will the BT attempt to define a "nuclear explosion," something that was purposely not done in the CTBT? All these issues bear careful watching.