Obama’s Nuclear Disarmament Agenda: Blurred Aims and Priorities

In his April 5, 2009 Prague speech, newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama set forth his vision for moving towards a world without nuclear weapons.With this speech, Obama intended to underscore his seriousness of purpose as far as turning a disarmament agenda that was gaining ground at unofficial levels – sparked and inspired by the op-eds written by George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn in January 2007 and again in January 2008 – into official US policy. This speech set in motion the series of arms control and disarmament events that occurred over the course of 2009-2010, with the most prominent milestones taking place in rapid succession during the first six months of 2010: agreement with Russia on New START; release of the US Nuclear Posture Review; the Nuclear Security Summit; and the May 2010 NPT Review Conference.