Arms Control Treaties: New START, NPT, CTBT, and FMCT

BASIC has followed developments around nuclear arms control treaties for over twenty years. This page includes links to recent coverage and resources for key treaties that BASIC has focused on as key steps in achieving progress towards its Getting to Zero objectives.

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

Signed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev on April 8, 2010, New START replaces the 1991 START treaty limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapon systems. The agreement introduces lower ceilings for the numbers of deployed warheads and delivery systems, and continues many of the necessary verification procedures. New START entered into force on February 5, 2011.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The NPT is the corner-stone of the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. The NPT Review Conference in May 2010 was a key moment for the global debate around nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and the agreement at its conclusion sets the framework for international negotiations over the period 2010 to 2015.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

The Obama Administration is committed to submitting the CTBT to the Senate for ratification, but support there is uncertain (it requires the support of 67 Senators). This is crucial to several other key states’ ratification, and necessary for the Treaty to come into force.

Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT)

States have shown little progress on agreeing to a text that would obligate them to stop producing bomb-grade nuclear fuel. The chosen venue for this dialogue has been the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva, but some leaders have been calling for moving negotiations out of the CD in an attempt to revitalize the process.

BASIC Board Member Amb. James Goodby
From START to START
Click here to watch interview with NPT TV on Vimeo

New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

Treaty text (U.S. State Department)
For associated Protocol, Annexes, Unilateral Statements, and latest reports on aggregate numbers of Strategic Offensive Arms for both parties, visit this page on the State Department’s website.

Treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011.

Russia completes ratification process, January 28, 2011.

U.S. Senate votes 71-26 in favor of New START, December 22, 2010.

Don’t stall on New START Op-ed by BASIC board member Bill Hartung in Huffington Post, November 9, 2010.
Stopping New START?
BASIC backgrounder on Senate ratification hearings for treaty reducing U.S. and Russian deployed long-range nuclear weapons, Anne Penketh, July 2, 2010.

The START follow-on negotiations: Russians focus on delivery vehicles, Jonathan McLaughlin, BASIC, Getting to Zero Paper, July 1, 2009.

External Resources:

-New START and U.S. National Security, Testimony by Steven Pifer (Brookings Institution) before the Senate Armed Services Committee, July 27, 2010.

-START Follow-On Talks Successfully Concluded: What’s Next? Nikolai Sokov, CNS Feature Stories, March 25, 2010.

Non-Proliferation Treaty

Treaty text, U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs

NPT Review Conference Day 20
NPT RevCon ends with adoption of consensus Final Document, report by Anne Penketh, May 28, 2010.

BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh was in New York for the 2010 Review Conference’s entirety. Some earlier highlights:

-Disarmament timeline could be deal-breaker
-Lines drawn at NPT Review Conference
-Nuclear Weapon States reaffirm responsibility toward disarmament
-Splits emerge over call for strengthened nuclear inspections

Visit the Publications page for additional daily briefings.

Keeping the ‘Non’ in the Non-Nuclear Weapon States (PDF), Chris Lindborg, BASIC Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 Papers - 5, April 2010.

Nuclear Options for NATO, Paul Ingram, BASIC Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 Papers - 4 (PDF), April 2010.

Non-Proliferation requires disarmament and vice versa: Advice to the Iranian Government as it seeks to challenge the nuclear order at the NPT Review Conference, Paul Ingram, BASIC Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 Papers - 3, April 2010.

Treading Water in 2010: The Nuclear Weapon States and Nuclear Disarmament (PDF), Chris Lindborg and Nicholas Meros, BASIC Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 Papers - 2, April 2010.

Peeling the Onion: Towards a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, Anne Penketh, BASIC Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 Papers - 1, March 2010.

External Resources:

-The 2010 NPT Review Conference: Deconstructing Consensus (PDF), William Potter, Patricia Lewis, Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, and Miles Pomper, CNS Special Report, June 17, 2010.

-Assessing the 2010 NPT Review Conference (PDF), Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 2010.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

Treaty text (has not entered into force), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization

U.S. Report on the CTBT, Chris Lindborg, BASIC This Week, March 26, 2012

Next Steps in Nuclear Negotiations - Briefing on Capitol Hill
Event summary includes presentations from CTBT experts Ed Ifft and Ray Willemann, March 31, 2011.

Time for the Test Ban
Commentary by Ambassador James Goodby, BASIC Board Member, March 31, 2010.

External Resources:

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Jenifer Mackby, Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 23, 2012
Project for the CTBT
Sponsored by the Arms Control Association (regularly updated)
The Poor Prospects of the CTBT Entering Into Force
Ch. Viyyanna Sastry, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, January 9, 2012

The Case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Ellen Tauscher, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Remarks before the Arms Control Association’s Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, May 10, 2011.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission, Includes information on member states and updates on technical implementation.

Now More than Ever: The Case for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Tom Z. Collina with Daryl G. Kimball, Arms Control Association Briefing Book, February 2010.

Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty

An FMCT would require that all member states refrain from producing additional bomb-grade fuel for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, but would not obligate them to reduce existing stockpiles. There is no agreed-upon text for such a treaty. The Conference on Disarmament (CD) has been the main venue for negotiations.

External resources and analyses:

Brainstorming old ideas [Conference on Disarmament]
Gabriella Irsten and Beatrice Fihn, Reaching Critical Will of WILPF, January 31, 2012
Pakistan’s Conditions for an FMCT
A.H. Nayyar, Arms Control Today, January/February 2012

FMCT, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University.
Five Plus Three: How to Have a Meaningful and Helpful Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Christopher A. Ford, opinion in Arms Control Today, March 2009.
Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Reaching Critical Will.
Ending Further Production, Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Nuclear Threat Initiative.