The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty An Insider's Perspective [Hardcover]

Since the mid-1950s, the international community has sought to ban all nuclear testing. In 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty emerged after three years of intense international negotiations. However, after nearly a decade, there is no sign that the treaty will ever enter into force.Despite the general support for and adherence to a series of national moratoria on nuclear explosive testing, it is important to understand why the effort to achieve a permanent ban on nuclear testing has experienced such difficulties and continues to travel such a problematic road. The author of this book is neither a promoter nor a critic of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, but rather he provides a brief historical and analytical understanding of the events surrounding its negotiation and implementation. The author's analysis, based on his personal involvement in the CTBT negotiations, provides one insiders view of how the critical events unfolded and how they are likely to affect future nonproliferation initiatives.There may be no better succinct reader available on the nuclear test ban treaty negotiations. This one captures not only the imagination, but also promotes a strong sense of the frenzied nature of global attempts to secure a future freed from the constant threat of a planetary nuclear winter. This is a very comprehensive and well-written and, at the same time, quite compact survey of what everyone needs to know about the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treat and, more broadly, about the entire effort to hold back the spread of nuclear weapons. I know of no other book that brings so authoritatively to the reader the issues addressed during the process of negotiating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This is a very valuable contribution to a greater understanding of the CTBT and the overall nuclear arms control picture. ...the book is a fascinating read both for the general reader and the specialist. It will be an invaluable resource for anyonl£x