On 4 November 2008, Mozambique ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions on Earth, the CTBT Organization announced in a news release.
The Treaty has now been ratified by 146 nations, and signed by 180.
“To enter into force, however, the Treaty must be signed and ratified by the 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty,” the CTBT Organization explained. “These States participated in the negotiations of the Treaty in 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. Thirty-five of these States have ratified the Treaty, including … France, Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The nine remaining States are China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.”
Background on the Treaty from the Congressional Research Service is available here (pdf).
The U.S. should continue its voluntary moratorium on explosive nuclear weapons tests and implement further checks on the president’s ability to call for a resumption of nuclear testing.
To help protect U.S. critical infrastructure workers, the next presidential administration should ensure ample supplies of high-quality respiratory personal protective equipment.
As data fuels the next transformative modernization phase, the federal government has an opportunity to leverage modern practices to leap forward in scaling IT modernization.
To maximize the potential of apprenticeship programs, the federal government should develop a cohesive approach to supporting “apprenticeships of the future,” such as those in cyber, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing.