Nuclear Weapons 2.0: US Nuclear Weapon Research after the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

In his dissertation, Giorgio Franceschini analyses US nuclear weapon research after Washington’s signature of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). What strikes is that the budgets slated for the US nuclear weapon laboratories are remarkably higher after Washington signed the treaty, in spite of the fact that the US arsenal has been shrinking continuously and that the spirit of the CTBT prohibits the development of new weapons. These observations lead to the central research question: what are the driving forces of US nuclear weapon research in the 21st century?