This house would maintain the ban on nuclear weapons testing

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) outlaws the testing of nuclear weapons (United Nations, 1996). So far, 175 countries signed the treaty, but it cannot become a binding international law until it has been ratified by all states capable of developing nuclear weapons, of which there are 44 specified in the treaty. Of these states, three (India, Pakistan and North Korea) have not signed the treaty, and a further six (China, Egypt, Israel, Iran, and the United States) are yet to ratify it (Preparatory Commission, 2010). The United States signed the treaty in 1996, as soon as the language was agreed upon, but the Senate rejected it by a tiny margin. While the idea of the CTBT is quite simple, implementation is immensely complex. One of the greatest concerns of the treaty, and of the international community, is with monitoring countries so as to verify their compliance with the ban. To this end the treaty sets up the International Monitoring System (IMS), a network of hundreds of scientific facilities spread across the globe which monitor seismic activity, radioactive fallout, atmospheric noise and oceanic waves to pick up evidence of a nuclear explosion. If the IMS detects a suspected nuclear test then an on-site inspection can follow. The treaty does not detail the action that would be taken against a state that has broken the treaty, but the Charter of the United Nations does empower the Security Council to take "appropriate steps". Although the treaty has not yet come into force, most of the IMS is now in place and working. Debates about the CTBT revolve around the efficacy of the treaty to prevent nuclear testing, and whether it is in the interest of nuclear-capable, and would-be nuclear-capable, states to agree to it.