Aiming for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

Mohamed Elbaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said Obama’s Presidency gives him hope for a “saner world.” Yet Obama’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the only member of his Administration carried over from the Bush Presidency, has made strong public statements in support of maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal and building a new nuclear warhead, which Obama opposed during his campaign.

How will the Obama Administration work towards a nuclear weapons-free world?

The Obama-Biden agenda for nuclear weapons focuses on three key points: securing loose nuclear materials from terrorists within four years; strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to include strong international sanctions; and moving toward a nuclear free world. The new administration also pledges to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and proposes a space weapons ban – a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.

U.S. nuclear weapons programs cost over $52 billion in 2008, according to “Nuclear Security Spending: Assessing Costs, Examining Priorities.” This report released in January by the Carnegie Endowment comprehensively tracked spending on nuclear weapons related programs for the first time. It reveals that 56% of the total amount spent on nuclear programs went toward operating, sustaining and upgrading the U.S. nuclear arsenal, with only 10% spent toward preventing a nuclear attack through slowing and reversing proliferation.

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the U.S. and Russia still have more than 20,000 nuclear weapons, several thousand of which are on high alert ready to launch in minutes. The Obama-Biden Administration plans to work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair trigger alert, and dramatically reduce our combined stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material. With the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (or START II) expiring this year, there is a great opportunity for the U.S. to negotiate with Russia on a mutual reduction of nuclear arsenals.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allows signatories to develop a domestic nuclear energy program but not to build nuclear weapons. The question of how to allow a nuclear energy program without enabling the creation of a nuclear bomb has proven to be difficult, particularly in regard to Iran. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to engage in direct diplomacy to get Iran to back off from their nuclear program.

Unlike the other presidential candidates, Obama vowed to work on Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a global ban on testing nukes. Obama has said he plans to revive negotiations on a fissile material production ban. These two strategies will get us much closer to a nuke-free world.

What is our nuclear arsenal costing us, both financially and in terms of security? How can the U.S. work with Russia to de-alert weapons and downsize both countries’ nuclear arsenals? How can we keep space free of weapons? Can the Obama Administration really set an international course for a world free of nuclear weapons?