Obama at One Year: "A" for Transforming Nuclear Policy, Incomplete For Execution
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 19, 2010
CONTACT: John Isaacs
Washington D.C. – The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, one of the nation’s major arms control organizations, gave President Barack Obama a grade of “A” for transforming United States nuclear weapons policy during his first year in office and an “Incomplete” for completing the new policy initiatives he has launched.
John Isaacs, the Center’s executive director, praised the President for “elevating the attention of the world on the 23,000 nuclear weapons remaining across the globe and the danger that some of these weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.”
Isaacs added: “President Obama’s forthrightness about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the need to take immediate action to avoid a nuclear holocaust constitute the most significant remarks by an American President on nuclear disarmament in the last half century.”
On April 5, after less than three months in office, President Obama delivered one of the most significant speeches of the nuclear age. He stated:
“As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it . . . I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
On September 24, the President secured unanimous United Nations Security Council approval for the objective of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Lt. Gen. Robert Gard (U.S Army, ret.) the Center’s chairman, emphasized that “while Obama’s first year vision was vital, the ultimate judgment on Obama’s performance will be based on how he begins to realize this vision over the coming months and years.”
Gard pointed to the following key steps ahead:
- Completion and ratification of a new nuclear reductions treaty with Russia;
- Commencement of negotiations with Russia on the next nuclear reductions agreement, ideally down to a level of 1,000 nuclear weapons total for each side;
- Completion of a Nuclear Posture Review that revamps American nuclear policy;
- A new budget providing resources to begin securing all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within three or four years;
- A successful Global Nuclear Security Summit in April;
- A successful Nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty Review Conference in May;
- The launch of an aggressive campaign to win ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty;
- An international agreement to launch talks to end the production of fissile materials for military purposes;
- Successful negotiations with Iran and North Korea to terminate their nuclear weapons programs.
“This President deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his vision and the initiatives he has launched, and we will work closely with him to realize that vision,” concluded Gard.
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