One of Barack Obama’s more significant unfulfilled campaign promises is getting the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Last year, speaking in Prague, he announced a determination to press ahead, declaring that
my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. After more than five decades of talks, it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons to finally be banned.
The president had hoped to get this done before the end of this year, but thanks to what promises to be an extended debate over the new START agreement, time is slipping away.
But even if the Senate were to act now and put its stamp on the agreement, would it go into force? Along with the United States, there are eight other “Annex 2” states that must also sign the test-ban treaty before it can go into force. The others are—get this!—Indonesia, Egypt, Israel, China, India, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan.
