CTBT - Views

Shalikashvili Report. In March 2000, convinced that the CTBT was too important to be abandoned in the wake of the Senate rejection, the Clinton administration appointed General John Shalikashvili as Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State for the CTBT. General Shalikashvili's mandate was to meet with Senators and others to listen to their concerns about the treaty, clear up misconceptions, and recommend steps the administration might take to gain a favorable vote in the Senate. Shalikashvili's report was completed and issued in January 2001 in the final days of the Clinton administration. While acknowledging that the CTBT was not perfect, the report concluded that the advantages of the treaty outweighed the drawbacks, and that on balance it would enhance U.S. national security. The report also made a number of recommendations related to nonproliferation, monitoring and verification, and stewardship of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

Bush Administration View. President George W. Bush takes the position that the CTBT would not stop nuclear proliferation and that it is not verifiable. While the Bush administration endorses continuing the testing moratorium that the United States has pursued since 1992, it also plans to shorten the time between the decision to conduct a nuclear test and the actual test. Senior Bush administration officials have expressed the view that the CTBT does not serve U.S. national security interests, citing the uncertainties about verification and proliferation impact discussed above. They claim the CTBT would prevent the United States from developing new nuclear weapons, such as the earth-penetrating nuclear weapons ("bunker busters") currently being researched by the Department of Energy, that might be called for in response to changes in the international security environment. While modifications to existing nuclear weapons would not necessarily require testing, new nuclear weapons might necessitate more than computer simulations.  They are also concerned that without a testing program in place, the United States will begin to lose technical skills needed for maintaining nuclear weapons and will be poorly positioned to reestablish a weapons development program when it is needed.  President Bush has left open the possibility that nuclear weapons testing will be resumed. In 2005, the U.S. Congress agreed to the Bush administration's request to reduce by 36 percent proposed fiscal year 2006 funding for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The United States is not officially represented at conferences on facilitating the CTBT's entry into force.