Nuclear Arms Control by a Pen and a Phone: Effectuating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Without Ratification

This Article examines three crucial national security problems concerning the testing and proliferation of nuclear weapons, and offers three novel solutions. In that dissonant environment, President Barack Obama has heralded his willingness to proceed with his progressive agenda 'with a pen and a phone'-if Congress is irreconcilably deadlocked, he will use his pen to sign executive orders and other agency actions and his telephone to convene meetings of concerned stakeholders. The three innovative options presented here are: (1) the adoption of a legally binding resolution by the United Nations Security Council to declare nuclear weapons testing a 'threat to the peace'; (2) the creation of a new norm of 'customary international law' prohibiting such testing; and (3) the adoption by relevant states of legally binding 'unilateral undertakings' to refrain from testing. Each of these options would promote U.S. national security and global stability by legally entrenching the current voluntary moratoria against nuclear testing. Adapted from the source document.