In the latest issue of Spectrum, Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan underlines the importance of focusing on the nexus between nuclear safety and nuclear security. In her article entitled Safeguarding the Arab Renaissance, Princess Sumaya explains that: "We in Jordan are ready to help shape our nuclear renaissance safely and securely, with a full commitment to non-proliferation and disarmament in our region." She also outlines a proposal to establish sub-National Data Centres; at several science universities in Jordan "to increase the use of invaluable IMS [International Monitoring System] data to aid scientific research in fields as diverse as seismology, geology, the environment and ICT," and her desire for the establishment of a Regional Data Centre in her country to help expand Treaty acceptance in the region.

Three analysts from the International Data Centre (IDC), geophysicist Marcela Villarroel, seismologist Jane Gore, and physicist Carla Pires, provide unique insights into one of the CTBTO's core activities - analyzing the data transmitted by the IMS to the CTBTO headquarters in Vienna. They talk about some of the challenges and rewards of their work and the importance of ensuring that CTBTO Member States receive data bulletins and analysis reports in a timely manner.

The President of Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey denounces nuclear weapons as "immoral and illegal" and explains that Switzerland has initiated a study on the subject of delegitimizing nuclear weapons. The New Zealand Disarmament Minister Georgina te Heuheu outlines her country's long history of opposition to nuclear weapons and nuclear testing, stressing that an effective and verifiable CTBT is an essential step on the road to a nuclear-weapon-free world. International security expert Alyson Bailes discusses the scope for synergy between weapons of mass destruction and conventional arms and her hope that future generations of women will want to focus on this subject.

On the verification side, Portugal's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation João Gomes Cravinho explains why he believes that a facility agreement is one of the best tools for building up the CTBT verification regime. This issue of Spectrum also includes articles on Global radiation monitoring in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, on Beacons in the nuclear night: Maintaining the health of the IMS, and a personal account by Misrak Fisseha from the IDC on the Capacity Building Project in Africa entitled A new link in the data chain: The Congo's National Data Centre as a model for the Central African region.