How to Build on the Start Treaty

THIS has been a remarkable time for the Obama administration. After a year of intense internal debate, it issued a new nuclear strategy. And after a year of intense negotiations with the Russians, President Obama signed the New Start treaty with President Dmitri Medvedev in Prague. On Monday, the president will host the leaders of more than 40 nations in a nuclear security summit meeting whose goal is to find ways of gaining control of the loose fissile material around the globe.

By WILLIAM J. PERRY and GEORGE P. SHULTZ

Published: April 10, 2010

New Start is the first tangible product of the administration’s promise to “press the reset button” on United States-Russian relations. The new treaty is welcome. But as a disarmament measure, it is a modest step, entailing a reduction of only 30 percent from the former limit — and some of that reduction is accomplished by the way the warheads are counted, not by their destruction. Perhaps the treaty’s greatest accomplishment is that the negotiations leading up to its signing re-engaged Americans and Russians in a serious discussion of how to reduce nuclear dangers.

So what should come next? We look forward to a follow-on treaty that builds on the success of the previous Start treaties and leads to significantly greater arms reductions — including reductions in tactical nuclear weapons and reductions that require weapons be dismantled and not simply put in reserve.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11shultz.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Obama Meets With a Parade of Leaders

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: April 11, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama met on Sunday with the leaders of two countries that gave up nuclear weapons and two that are building more, and he prepared for his nuclear security summit meeting by warning that Al Qaeda was still seeking materials to build an atomic bomb.

“The single biggest threat to U.S. security, both short-term, medium-term and long-term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said.

Al Qaeda, he said, is “trying to secure a nuclear weapon — a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using.”

Mr. Obama greeted the presidents of South Africa and Kazakhstan, Jacob Zuma and Nursultan Nazarbayev, in sessions meant to showcase countries that once possessed nuclear weapons and relinquished them. Mr. Obama has argued that the security of both countries improved thereafter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/world/12prexy.html?fta=y

Leaders Gather for Nuclear Talks as New Threat Is Seen

By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

Published: April 11, 2010

WASHINGTON — Three months ago, American intelligence officials examining satellite photographs of Pakistani nuclear facilities saw the first wisps of steam from the cooling towers of a new nuclear reactor. It was one of three plants being constructed to make fuel for a second generation of nuclear arms.

The message of those photos was clear: While Pakistan struggles to make sure its weapons and nuclear labs are not vulnerable to attack by Al Qaeda, the country is getting ready to greatly expand its production of weapons-grade fuel.

The Pakistanis insist that they have no choice. A nuclear deal that Indiasigned with the United States during the Bush administration ended a long moratorium on providing India with the fuel and technology for desperately needed nuclear power plants.

Now, as critics of the arrangement point out, the agreement frees up older facilities that India can devote to making its own new generation of weapons, escalating one arms race even as President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia sign accords to shrink arsenals built during the cold war.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/world/12nuke.html?th&emc=th

OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS How to Build on the Start Treaty

By WILLIAM J. PERRY and GEORGE P. SHULTZ

Published: April 10, 2010

THIS has been a remarkable time for the Obama administration. After a year of intense internal debate, it issued a new nuclear strategy. And after a year of intense negotiations with the Russians, President Obama signed the New Start treaty with President Dmitri Medvedev in Prague. On Monday, the president will host the leaders of more than 40 nations in a nuclear security summit meeting whose goal is to find ways of gaining control of the loose fissile material around the globe.

New Start is the first tangible product of the administration’s promise to “press the reset button” on United States-Russian relations. The new treaty is welcome. But as a disarmament measure, it is a modest step, entailing a reduction of only 30 percent from the former limit — and some of that reduction is accomplished by the way the warheads are counted, not by their destruction. Perhaps the treaty’s greatest accomplishment is that the negotiations leading up to its signing re-engaged Americans and Russians in a serious discussion of how to reduce nuclear dangers.

So what should come next?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11shultz.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

U.S. and Russia Sign Nuclear Arms Pact

Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia signing the treaty in Prague on Thursday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/world/europe/09prexy.html?ref=global-home

PRAGUE — With flourish and fanfare, President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia signed a nuclear arms control treaty on Thursday and opened what they hoped would be a new era in the tumultuous relationship between two former cold war adversaries.

Meeting here in the heart of a once-divided Europe, the two leaders put aside the acrimony that has characterized Russian-American ties in recent years as they agreed to bring down their arsenals and restore an inspection regime that expired in December. Along the way, they sidestepped unresolved disputes over missile defense and other issues.

“When the United States and Russia are not able to work together on big issues, it is not good for either of our nations, nor is it good for the world,” Mr. Obama said as his words echoed through a majestic, gilded hall in the famed Prague Castle. “Together, we have stopped the drift, and proven the benefits of cooperation. Today is an important milestone for nuclear security and nonproliferation, and for U.S.-Russia relations.”

With Arms Pact, Disarmament Challenge Remains

PRAGUE — President Obama came to this medieval city last spring to lay out an audacious vision of “a world without nuclear weapons.” A year later, he will arrive back here on Thursday to sign a treaty with Russia that envisions a world with thousands of nuclear weapons.

Under the so-called New Start treaty, the two powers will pare their arsenals but still deploy 1,550 warheads each, on top of thousands of others not covered by the pact. All of which raises this question: Nearly two decades after the end of the cold war, with terrorists, rather than Soviet despots, the main threat, why does the world still need so many weapons?

By PETER BAKER

Published: April 7, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08arms.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

With Arms Pact, Disarmament Challenge Remains

by PETER BAKER

Published: April 7, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/europe/08arms.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

PRAGUE — President Obama came to this medieval city last spring to lay out an audacious vision of “a world without nuclear weapons.” A year later, he arrives back here on Thursday to sign a treaty with Russia that envisions a world with thousands of nuclear weapons.

Under the so-called New Start treaty, the two powers will pare their arsenals but still deploy 1,550 warheads each, on top of thousands of others not covered by the pact. All of which raises this question: Nearly two decades after the end of the cold war, with terrorists, rather than Soviet despots, the main threat, why does the world still need so many weapons?