0. United States President Barack Obama called for a “world without nuclear weapons” in a speech last weekend in Prague. A peacenik ideal or calculated political move? Both.
Hours after North Korea fired a rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, President Obama outlined his vision for a nuclear-free world. Getting to zero may be impossible and Obama admitted that “this goal will not be reached quickly, perhaps not in my lifetime.” But the rhetoric and visible efforts help in preventing nuclear proliferation.
Concrete steps to reduce existing arsenals will provide greater legitimacy in negotiations with potential nuclear powers. Obama committed to discussing a new arms control treaty with Russia and resubmitting the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty to Congress. The Senate rejected the treaty in 1999.
These moves may strengthen the anti-proliferation regime. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty relies on official nuclear powers credibly moving towards disarmament in order to restrain others from pursuing atomic bombs.
Pierre Goldschmidt, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently wrote that “repeated violations of the Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards have been met with ambiguous and inconsistent responses from the international community, creating the impression that states can pursue nuclear weapons programs without meaningful consequences.” Obama agrees. “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something,” he said.
Cheaters and possible cheats – North Korea, Iran, Syria and others – often refuse to consider necessary and more stringent requirements. It will be “impossible to curtail nuclear-weapons proliferation without serious progress towards nuclear disarmament.” For more, check out the Carnegie report, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate, edited by George Perkovich and James Acton.
Don’t, however, expect the United States to give up its deterrent as long as the number of nuclear arms is greater than zero. Obama also emphasized:
“Make no mistake, as long as these weapons exist, the United States will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary and guarantee that defense to our allies.”
Graphic from the BBC.
