nuclear-news

World wide state of nuclear weaponry confronts Obama’s nuclear-free ideals

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, the year he had made a speech in Prague calling for a nuclear-free planet. Yet the issue seems to have taken a back seat during his time in office. Obama apparently hoped that the Hiroshima trip would revive the momentum for arms reduction both in the U.S. and across the globe.

Obama signed the New START strategic arms reduction treaty with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, adding momentum to global disarmament efforts. But the atmosphere worsened after Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in 2012.

Bilateral relations cooled after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, slamming the brakes on disarmament. Signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty also failed to agree on further reductions at a review meeting last year.

Russia has already exceeded the maximum amount of warheads allowed under New START. China has abandoned the concept of minimal deterrence and is now preparing to equip nuclear submarines with sub-launched ballistic missiles. It is only a matter of time before North Korea develops warheads small enough to mount on a ballistic missile.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump contends that Japan and South Korea should build nuclear arsenals of their own, utterly disregarding Obama’s calls for a world free of the weapons.

The real estate mogul ironically echoes Obama when he argues that the U.S. cannot continue to be “the policeman of the world.” The American public is increasingly turning inward from two difficult wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama’s disarmament push may also be hindered by weakened U.S. leadership in the international arena and growing isolationism at home.

May 28, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general