ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of the endgame impasse in Geneva and considers the implications for the future of the test ban regime and non-proliferation, with particular focus on two issues which became elevated to the role of ‘treaty breakers’ — on-site inspections and entry into force. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) negotiations reconvened in Geneva in January 1996 amid speculation of dirty dealing by the United States, India and Russia. India may have dressed its objections to the CTBT in nuclear disarmament aspirations, but its concerns were those of a minor nuclear power eager to keep its nuclear weapon options open. The indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in May 1995 was followed in August by the decision to go for a true zero yield CTBT, undertaken first by the United States and France, and eventually by the rest of the nuclear weapon states.
