The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which prohibits all nuclear explosions either for military or "peaceful" purposes, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 1996. Although disputes remain in some countries over the ratification of the treaty, the adoption of the text by the General Assembly marks the culmination of several decades of intermittent negotiation aimed at the worldwide prohibition of nuclear explosions within the United Nations nuclear nonproliferation framework. The CTBT aims at preventing the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons and is viewed by the United Nations as an important step toward eventual nuclear disarmament.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower first suggested a ban on atmospheric testing in 1955, but it was not until August 1963, in the aftermath of the 1962 superpower showdown over the stationing of nuclear-capable missiles in Cuba, that the United States and the U.S.S.R. agreed to...