1. Be patient – The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expires at the end of this year. Negotiating a follow-on treaty, ideally one that brings U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals down toward 1,000 warheads per side, must be the Obama team’s primary focus in 2009 (for more on START, see our new resource center). Once the START follow-on agreement is negotiated, signed, and approved by the Senate, we can turn our attention to the CTBT, perhaps in 2010. This doesn’t mean, however, that groundwork for the CTBT fight can’t be laid this year.

2. Educate – As one senior Senate staffer said at the Center’s working group on policy recommendations for the new administration, CTBT advocates need to “campaign to educate people because it’s been a long time since people have heard about CTBT.” This education campaign must include briefings for new senators that weren’t around for the first CTBT fight in 1999.

3. Present a broad case for ratification – Ahab ultimately was destroyed by Moby Dick because his single-mindedness rendered him myopic and tactically inflexible. Supporters of the CTBT might avoid a similar fate if they are willing to shatter traditional rhetorical molds and offer arguments that respond to current Republican conceptions of national security.

Setting a good global example, participating in multilateral treatymaking, and strengthening international law are benefits the United States can expect to accrue from the CTBT. However, these perks are likely to be of little interest to conservative Republicans. CTBT supporters need to spend less time preaching to the choir and more time emphasizing the “hard power,” or military-centric, benefits of the CTBT. There is enough strong evidence available to bring along both hawks and doves if champions of the CTBT are willing to recalibrate their messages depending on the audience.

Specifically the point needs to be emphasized that the CTBT helps stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons to state and non-state actors, which makes the United States and its allies safer. The significant technological advancements in monitoring and verification also need to be highlighted to reassure people that the CTBT will not allow “cheating” to occur that is militarily significant. Read more about these issues in Corral That Bomb Testing Part 3 – Verification and Corral That Bomb Testing Part 4 – Cheaters.

Nukes on a Blog, Congress (all tags)

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