The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Is Still a Bad Idea

Like the antagonist in a bad horror film, some ideas just won’t die. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is one of those ideas.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2015. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Like the antagonist in a bad horror film, some ideas just won’t die. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) is one of those ideas.

The Senate refused to ratify the treaty back in 1999, the first time the Senate rejected a treaty since Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations. Still, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz recently announced their intentions to get the Senate to reconsider.

The CTBT was a poor deal in 1999, and nothing has occurred in the interim to change that.

The CTBT was a poor deal in 1999, and nothing has occurred in the interim to change that.