The forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review fails to address many of the promises President Barack Obama made in his landmark Prague address
Advocates of nuclear disarmament were extremely optimistic when President Barack Obama gave a landmark speech in April of last year announcing his intention to make global nuclear disarmament a central goal of his foreign policy. He said:
Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked — that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.
Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And as nuclear power — as a nuclear power, 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.
So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I’m not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly — perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, “Yes, we can.”
What was perhaps most remarkable about about these strong words was not that they showed an unprecedented commitment to nuclear disarmament by an American president, but rather that they seemed so plausible coming from a man who had been swept into office on a wave of disgust with, among other things, the macho-paranoid militancy of the Bush Administration.
Well, the honeymoon’s been over for some time now and, like so many of the bold policy pronouncements of the earliest days of Obama’s presidency, the actual, binding, position of the United States on the question of nuclear weapons and how to use them is not going to change significantly. The new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) will modify, but not remove, wording that indicates a stated policy of pre-emption when appropriate – essentially declaring that the primary (but not sole) purpose of the American nuclear arsenal is to deter a nuclear attack. This does not quite “put an end to Cold War thinking” as President Obama stated in his speech. In an interview with the New York Times, Daryl G. Kimball, President of the Arms Control Association said:
“Any declaration that deterring a nuclear attack is a ‘primary purpose’ of our arsenal leaves open the possibility that there are other purposes, and it would not reflect any reduced reliance on nuclear weapons.”
It is also being reported that the new policy paper will seek to reduce American dependency upon nuclear weapons as a deterrent by channeling more funding into missile defense systems and “new, non-nuclear Prompt Global Strike weapons” intended to have the same tactical effect as a nuclear weapon without providing the pretext for a nuclear retaliation.
To be fair, the Prague address did not establish a timetable for eliminating the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the NPR will contain policies that provide for the reduction of the number of weapons stockpiled. However, as Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have both stated, the U.S. adoption of the H.W. Bush-era nuclear testing moratorium has limited the means by which the military can update its nuclear arsenal.
However, the Obama administration adherence to a policy of pre-emption that was created out of morbid cynicism and adopted out of fear makes very little sense when the main military threats to the United States are: insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq – no nuclear weapons there, terrorists – no country to nuke, and Iran & North Korea – Iran couldn’t strike America even if they do currently have a nuclear weapon and North Korea seems to be more interested in using its arsenal for leverage in acquiring badly needed aid.
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[Living up to nuclear expectations | guardian.co.uk]
[White House Is Rethinking Nuclear Policy | New York Times]
[Remarks of President Barack Obama | U.S. State Dept.]
Video of the Prague Address
