The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 clear testing treaty. It banned nuclear testing in the at- mosphere, under water or in outer space. It was followed in 1974 by the Threshold Test Ban Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, which set a thresh- old of 150 kilotons for any underground nuclear weapons test, and the 1976 U.S.–Soviet Treaty on Underground Explosions for Peaceful Purposes, or Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty, which applied the same threshold to any explosion for peaceful purposes. The significance for disarmament of the former agreement is that the thresh- old essentially established a limit on the destructive power of new U.S. or Soviet nuclear weapons; the ex- tension of the limit to peaceful explosions provided a pro- tection against possible attempts to camouflage a weapons test as a peaceful explosion. The CTBT was negotiated in the multilateral Confer- ence on Disarmament in Geneva, and approved by the United Nations General Assembly and opened for signa- ture on Sept. 24, 1996. The United States was the first government to sign the treaty, which prohibits any nuclear F O C U S W hile not a comprehensive listing of treaties that are in force, the following three agreements are particularly relevant to the goal of establishing the foundation for a world without weapons of mass destruction. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: The NPT is a near-universal treaty — only India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea are not party to it. It entered into force on March 5, 1970. It is a treaty of unlimited duration that com- mits the five states that possessed nuclear weapons at the time that the treaty was signed not to transfer their nuclear know- how to other states, and it commits those which did not pos- sess nuclear weapons at that time not to seek or acquire such weapons. It also commits all member-states to facilitate ac- cess to peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to work toward nuclear and general and complete disarmament. The Interna- tional Atomic Energy Agency implements its provisions related to peaceful uses and verifies that states do not divert material acquired for peaceful uses to other purposes. At its five-year Review Conference (May 3-28, 2010), member-states will focus on how best to strengthen implementation of its provi- sions related to nonproliferation, disarmament and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The Chemical Weapons Convention: The CWC, which en- tered into force on April 29, 1997, is a multilateral treaty of un- limited duration. It prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, use and stockpiling of chemical weapons; prohibits member-states from assisting any individuals or states in these prohibited activities; and requires the destruction of chemical weapons by 2012. (The use of chemical weapons was banned by the 1925 Geneva Protocol.) The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is the implementing body for the CWC. The CWC includes an ex- tensive set of data declaration requirements and inspections, in- cluding of declared military and commercial chemical industry facilities and suspect sites. Currently, 188 states have ratified the CWC. The next Review Conference for the convention will take place in 2012. U.S. and international implementation activities currently center on encouraging universal adherence to the con- vention, aiding member-states in the implementation of their CWC obligations, working through technical impediments to the completion of destruction activities by the CWC’s 2012 de- struction deadline, identifying how best to address new and emerging chemical challenges that derive from advances in technology, and resolving compliance issues. The Biological Weapons and Toxins Convention: The BWC, which entered into force on March 26, 1975, is a multilateral treaty of unlimited duration that bans the development, produc- tion, acquisition, transfer and stockpiling of biological agents and toxins and their means of delivery for non-peaceful pur- poses, and required their destruction within nine months of the treaty’s entry into force. Use of biological weapons was banned by the 1925 Geneva Protocol. (Biodefense programs are per- mitted, however.) Currently, 163 states have ratified the BWC. Unlike the CWC, the BWC does not have a standing imple- menting organization, require the mandatory exchange of infor- mation or include on-site verification provisions. In 1986, the parties agreed to exchange annually certain types of informa- tion in order to build confidence and increase transparency, but to date, not all of them have participated. Like the CWC, the BWC calls for states to consult and cooperate, bilaterally and/or multilaterally, to solve compliance concerns. In 2001, efforts to develop a legally binding protocol were halted when states could not agree on whether such a protocol would aid in verification of compliance. Since the 2002 BWC Review Conference, member-states have met annually to dis- cuss understanding of, and promote national action on, a vari- ety of measures, including biosecurity, national implementation measures, suspicious outbreaks of disease, disease surveillance capacity building and codes of conduct for scientists. The next BWC Review Conference will occur in 2011. OTHER TREATIES