Obama Takes Nuclear Policy to the U.N.

Stories we're following today:

Obama Builds Momentum on Nuclear Policy at UN - My reaction to President Obama's speech at the United nations [link]

• Obama gave a tough speech, strong on American commitments but also a strong call for other nations to fulfill their responsibilities. He told the world that America wanted a world without nuclear weapons; he told America that this path would make us safer and stronger; he told his own officials that he expected them to deliver on his promise.
• Read the Full Speech or watch it below:

Brown Offers to Cut Trident Nuclear Submarines by a Quarter - The Guardian [link]

• Gordon Brown will add momentum to moves towards nuclear disarmament tomorrow by announcing that he intends Britain to build only three, and not the planned four, replacement Trident nuclear submarines.
• In a speech to the UN general assembly today, Brown will say it is time for "statesmanship, not brinkmanship" on nuclear disarmament if the ambition to create a nuclear-free world is genuine.

A Better Base for Cutting Nuclear Weapons - Strobe Talbott in the Financial Times [link]

• The Obama missile defense plan is a big improvement on the Bush one, and it is designed to counter an evolving Iranian threat, not to mollify Russian anxieties.

Cracks in Iran’s Clique - Thomas Friedman in the New York Times [link]

• For the first time since Iran began enriching uranium that could be used in a nuclear weapon, we have a glimmer of hope for a diplomatic solution to this problem
• We may be in a position to say to the Iranian regime that continuing to grow its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium outside international controls, and suffering real economic sanctions, could threaten its survival more than it would help.

Obama's Missile Defense Plan: Smart Or Surrender? - The National Journal [link]

• In announcing plans to abandon the Bush administration's missile defense system in Eastern Europe, President Obama said that his alternative is more flexible and better tailored to the nature of regional threats. Critics charge that Obama is appeasing an authoritarian Russia at the expense of our democratic allies in Eastern Europe and leaving the United States and NATO allies more vulnerable to Iran's missiles. Which side is closer to the truth?
• Responses from Michael Brenner, Joseph Cirincione, and Baker Spring.
  

A View from the Dark Side

Obama and the Politics of Concession - Mark Halperin in Wall Street Journal [link]

• Last week, the Iranian president and the Russian prime minister put Mr. Obama to the test, and he blinked not once but twice. The price of such infirmity has always proven immensely high, even if, as is the custom these days, the bill has yet to come.
• We are now faithfully complying, and last week, after Iran foreclosed discussion of its nuclear program and Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, Mr. Ahmadinejad's chief political adviser, predicted "the defeat and collapse" of Western democracy, the U.S. agreed to enter talks the premise of which, incredibly, is to eliminate American nuclear weapons