Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
10/24/2014
In a continued effort to drum up support for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller this week urged attendees of several different events at colleges in Utah and Massachusetts to spread word of the agreement’s merits and the benefits of ratifying it. “We need to make sure that people know what the CTBT is and why it is important,” Gottemoeller said during an Oct. 21 address at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. “The most important thing that supporters of the CTBT can do is to educate their friends, their family and their communities on the reasons that the Treaty is good for America.”
The CTBT, which would eliminate nuclear explosive testing anytime, in any worldwide location, was rejected by the Senate in 1999, and must be ratified by eight more nations—including the United States—to enter into force. In an email to NS&D Monitor this week, a State Department spokesperson wrote that China has hinted in numerous meetings in recent years that if U.S. ratifies CTBT, it would follow suit. In addition to Gottemoeller, other Obama Administration officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, have publicly pushed for the treaty’s entry into force in recent months. Gottemoeller’s speech at Dixie State was the first address of a planned weeklong speaking tour at eight venues in Utah and Massachusetts.
Later in the address, Gottemoeller added that while she and her colleagues are not defining a ratification timeline, they are “working with the Senate to re-familiarize members with the treaty.” She expressed optimism about future Senate considerations. “A lot of CTBT-related issues have changed since 1999, and the Senate has changed a lot since then, too,” Gottemoeller said. “It is up to us, as policymakers and experts before the American people, to practice due diligence in consideration of this Treaty. Ratification of this Treaty will require debate, discussion, questions, briefings, trips to the national labs and other technical facilities, hearings and more, as was the case with the New START Treaty. Senators should have every opportunity to ask questions—many, many questions—until they are satisfied. That is how good policy is made and that is how treaties get across the finish line.”
Gottemoeller: Monitoring Systems Give Treaty “Teeth”
Gottemoeller on Oct. 21 reiterated positive sentiments expressed by Kerry and Moniz in September. Speaking at the CTBT Joint Ministerial meeting at U.N. Headquarters on Sept. 26 in New York and at a CTBT conference on Sept. 15 at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, respectively, Kerry and Moniz heralded the CTBT’s international monitoring system, which has been certifiably established in 82 percent of 337 planned global locations. Gottemoeller spoke about IMS’ observable impacts. “In addition to its verification role, the IMS has also proven its ability to contribute critical scientific data to benefit civil society,” she said. “Since the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004, the IMS has contributed considerable seismic data to the Pacific tsunami warning system. Additionally, after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, we saw how the IMS can track radioactivity from nuclear reactor accidents.”
Speaking to attendees of an Oct. 23 event at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Gottemoeller said the U.S. supplements the “multilateral teeth” of CTBT’s monitoring and verification system with its own enforcement actions. The U.S. has recently been paying close attention to North Korea’s nuclear actions. “When we get warning that a nuclear test may be in the offing, we send our monitoring and sensor systems to be close-by,” she said. To enforce a test ban, an international team would be able to enter the test site of a country suspected of explosive testing, Gottemoeller said. “If they say no, then that of course is a major trigger and a major signal that they are cheating on the treaty, but also if they go, ‘Yes, please come on in,’ and then we go to the site and find evidence of an illicit nuclear test, then we can essentially call them out in violation of the treaty. And there we have a range of tools that are available to us, including taking it to the United Nations Security Council for sanctions activity. … The teeth in these treaties has a lot to do with respect for the international system and the international system of law, and therefore it is important to bear in mind that there is an element of international condemnation that comes to bear as well.”
