The Comprehensive Nuclear‐Test‐Ban Treaty

Struggles over ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) illustrate the politicization of international agreements, even in an area of so-called high politics where many believe that national security imperatives drive state behavior. Ratification struggles in the United States led that government to reject the treaty in 1999. Other countries, including France, Germany, Australia, and Canada, offered their support for the agreement in spite of dramatically different stances on the issue of stewardship of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. To date, the CTBT has not entered into force, in part because of decisions by select governments not to ratify the agreement.