ABSTRACT
In 1951, the General Assembly nominated a committee of five members to make proposals for restarting and accelerating disarmament negotiations. Two aspects of the efforts must be considered. On one hand, they tried to negotiate General and Complete Disarmament (GCD) and, on the other, to realise partial, but immediately possible, measures of arms limitation or of local disarmament. A new plan for GCD was put forward by the Soviet Union in September 1959. Ten-nation Disarmament Committee was then created, with five NATO powers and five from the Warsaw Pact. The partial test-ban treaty was discussed first at the Geneva Conference and, in the final stage, between the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom. It forbids all nuclear tests on the ground, underwater and in outerspace, but not underground, because such explosions may, in some cases, be confused with small earthquakes and need someone-the spot inspections for identification.
