Reflecting the renewed political prominence of the CTBT, this issue of Spectrum has an abundance of political and scientific contributions from prominent authors. No less than four foreign ministers explain why the CTBT is important to their countries: French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Moroccan counterpart, Taieb Fassi Fihri, who will be jointly presiding over the Article XIV conference; Alberto Romulo, Foreign Minister of the Philippines and Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, the country currently holding the Presidency of the European Union. With regard to the articles by political analysts, Chinese academic and nuclear arms control expert, Shen Dingli, explains why the CTBT should be ratified by China. James Goodby, former U.S. diplomat and specialist on nuclear non-proliferation and security issues, places the CTBT into the wider context of nuclear non-proliferation.

On the more scientific side, physicist and verification expert David Hafemeister presents a detailed analysis on the CTBT’s verifiability. Sidney Drell, physicist and longtime adviser to the U.S. government and the nuclear weapons laboratories, reflects on the Stockpile Stewardship Program, an important factor for the U.S. discussions on CTBT ratification. The North-West Pacific Tsunami Information Center in Japan explains how it profits from International Monitoring System (IMS) data for tsunami warning purposes. And finally, our own experts provide insights into the CTBTO’s findings on the May 25 North Korean nuclear test.