The Beginning of the End of the Nuclear Weapons Era
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKSn1SXjj2s&feature=player_embedded]
This video is an excerpt of President Obama’s speech in Prague.
On Sunday, President Obama gave a groundbreaking speech addressing nuclear proliferation in which he stated “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” By putting a “world without nuclear weapons” at the center of US nuclear policy, Obama has signaled a real shift in strategy that acknowledges the Cold War is long over and that nuclear weapons are a liability that puts all of us in danger. You can watch the entire speech here or read the transcript here.
President Obama outlined a series of steps forward to achieve this vision and work with the international community to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons:
- Reducing the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy
- Negotiating a new treaty with Russia for deep, verifiable reductions to both countries’ arsenals
- US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to help ban nuclear testing globally
- Preventing new nuclear weapons states by negotiating a new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials
- Strengthening the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
- An international effort to prevent nuclear terrorism by securing loose nuclear material
- Hosting a Global Summit on Nuclear Security within the next year
Congress is likely to pose a significant hurdle for the Obama administration. Treaties require ratification by two-thirds of the Senate or 67 votes, and Congress will need to approve funding for programs to address the nuclear weapons threat. We’ll be working to build bipartisan support for these steps toward a nuclear weapons free world in Congress to ensure they are implemented.
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The Fissile Cutoff Treaty, in my oniipon, has been outmoded by passing events. Its relevance to arms control and treaty reductions does not have the importance it had during the Cold War. The superpowers are not really producing fissile materials for weapons, and the main problem is to urge them to expand the process of fissile-material conversion to reactor grade so that nuclear weapons can be irreversibly demilitarized.Demilitarization of weapon-grade nuclear materials is an ongoing and commercially successful activity, especially for France, Russia, and the United States, and it is the way to go to support meaningful and irreversible nuclear reductions.One of the problems with the FMCT is that its proponents have long been co-opted by individuals who have an agenda of minimizing or interfering with the growth of nuclear reactors around the world. However, nuclear reactors are exactly what’s needed to the commercially successful and irreversible conversion of existing fissile materials. –Alex DeVolpiIncidentally, I like your communication outreach through Facebook and this Blog.