Publication

This brief looks at the capabilities of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)'s verification regime and the role of that regime in deterring clandestine nuclear testing. The author argues that in the context of CTBT verification, negotiators designed an integrated system that will clearly complicate the plans of any state thinking that it could evade that system and derive a meaningful political, military or strategic advantage from doing so. He writes that the treaty’s verification ‘presents a formidable set of obstacles for a would-be violator to surmount.’ That in turn, Dr Walker argues, plays an important role in deterring parties from attempting to evade the treaty in the first place.