Nuclear Test Ban
Converting Political Visions to Reality
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
The book gives a broad presentation in laymen's language of the creation and the implementation of the treaty prohibiting nuclear test explosions (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: CTBT), one of the key guarantors of nuclear non-proliferation. The writers, who personally guided this work for more than 25 years, give a unique insight into the challenging international work to establish a complex technological system with global coverage in a political environment.
Extensive nuclear testing has occurred and this is comprehensively reviewed, as are the arguments in favour of a test ban and efforts to implement one. The Conference on Disarmament in Geneva witnessed unprecedented efforts by scientists from around the world to form a common understanding of how to verify a test ban treaty and develop a prototype global verification system; work that was significant in building confidence at the height of the Cold War. The political negotiations and Treaty itself are briefly analysed, but the main part of the book is devoted to more than a decade of effort by the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization to implement the treaty and its verification system: the most comprehensive verification system ever created, with a global coverage connecting more than 300 monitoring stations and an intrusive on-site inspection regime.
The first, most promising test results are also presented. An essential element of the book is its assessment of the experience gained through many years of political, managerial and technical activity. Such lessons, if well learned, can benefit the negotiations of future international treaties where verification is crucial, such as in arms control, disarmament or the environment.
Audience:
This book will be of interest to professionals in political, diplomatic and military areas, and to politicians and their staffs. Scientists and graduate students in political science and researchers at institutions in security related fields and at NGOs will find valuable information in this book.
Nuclear tests have caused public concern ever since the first such test was conducted, more than six decades ago. During the Cold War, however, con- tions were not conducive to discussing a complete ban on nuclear testing. It was not until 1993 that negotiations on such a treaty finally got under way. From then on, things moved relatively quickly: in 1996, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). To date, the Treaty has been signed by 178 states and ratified by 144, though it has yet to enter into force, as nine out of 44 ‘‘Annex 2 states’’, whose ratification is mandatory, have not heeded the call. Nevertheless, the CTBT verification system is already provisionally operational and has proven its effectiveness. We commend the CTBT organisation in Vienna for its successful efforts to build a verification network. This book is an excellent overview of the evolution of the CTBT and its verification regime. The authors are eminent scholars from the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden who have been intimately involved with the CTBT and its verification agency, the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, from their inc- tion to the present day. They have written a thorough and engaging narrative of the long road that led to the CTBT. Their story will appeal to both the layman and the expert and provide useful lessons for future negotiations on disarmament issues.
CTBT is likely to be on the front pages the coming years - this book gives you the background The most comprehensive verification system ever created is soon operational - this book gives you an assessment Science for Security is a concept of the CTBT and of this book Provides a unique insight to the creation and implementation of a treaty by those at the helm
Autor*in
Ola Dahlman
Themen in »Nuclear Test Ban«
Arms Control Disarmament International Security NATO Non-Proliferation Nuclear test ban Nuclear weapons Proliferation Verification nuclear non-proliferation politics
Stimmen zu »Nuclear Test Ban«
From the reviews:
"Drawing from their experience, the authors provide a well-structured and comprehensive view of the CTBT, from the construction of nuclear devices to the promising first results of the monitoring system of the treaty. In an impeccable edition, the chapters are clearly divided into subsections, and numerous illustrations are used to clarify the arguments in the text."
G. Suarez, EOS Newsletter, Vol. 91, No. 21, p. 193
“The book focuses on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the CTBT Organization (CTBTO) that runs the International Monitoring System (IMS) and the International Data Centre (IDC). The authors are experienced researchers with outstanding experience in seismic monitoring and who have helped to create what is now CTBTO. … seems very important to scientists dealing with seismic- or hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide monitoring … .” (Pawel Wiejacz, Pure and Applied Geophysics, Vol. 167, 2010)
“It is a solid reference edition concerning the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), International Nuclear Explosion Monitoring System (IMS) and Preparatory Commission of the CTBT Organization. … the authors produced a multilayered book in which one can distinguish several conceptual layers. … the text is supplied with a lot of photographs, maps and diagrams … . The structure of the book is designed to make good that thesis. … gives the reader a holistic view of the diplomatic struggle for the nuclear test ban.” (Alexey Fenenko, International Trends, Vol. 8 (3), September-December, 2010)
()