New START Ratified with Strong Bipartisan Vote

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today, Thursday, December 23, 2010:

Senate Ratifies New U.S.-Russia Nuclear Weapons Treaty - Mary Beth Sheridan and William Branigin for The Washington Post [link]

• The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a new nuclear arms-reduction treaty with Russia, the broadest such pact between the former Cold War foes in nearly two decades.  The Senate ratified the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as New START, by a vote of 71 to 26, easily clearing the threshold of two-thirds of senators present as required by the Constitution for treaty ratification.
• The final vote came after Senate Democrats accepted two amendments designed to placate Republicans who had qualms about the treaty. The amendments, which passed on voice votes with bipartisan support, emphasized the administration's commitment to a limited missile-defense program and to continued funding to modernize the aging U.S. nuclear weapons complex.
• In a floor speech shortly before the ratification vote, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the Foreign Relations Committee chairman who shepherded the treaty through the Senate, implored senators to put politics aside and take a broad view. "This is one of those rare times in the United States Senate . . . when we have it in our power to safeguard or endanger human life on this planet," he said. "More than any other, this issue should transcend politics. . . . More than at almost any other time, the people of the world are watching us because they rely on our leadership."
• Kerry also chided Republicans who had argued against taking up New START ratification so close to Christmas, thus delaying their departures for the holidays. "The question is not whether we get out of here for a holiday; the question is whether we move the world a little more out of the dark shadow of nuclear nightmare," he said.
• The treaty, if also ratified by Russia as expected, would replace the pact that was credited with ensuring stability between the countries that maintain 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. Since the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I ended last year, the atomic giants have had no inspections of their strategic nuclear arsenals, a gap that worries the U.S. military.

Kerry Kept Focus Sharp Amid Drama - Mark Arsenault for The Boston Globe [link]

• Some Republicans were livid that the “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ repeal would be resurrected in the Senate in the waning days of a lame-duck session, and they threatened to walk away from the New START pact in retaliation.  The Massachusetts senator, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, privately warned the Senate leadership that months of negotiations and work were at risk of unraveling.
• “It was a very delicate discussion,’’ Kerry said in an interview. “We certainly made them aware of the stakes without opposing anything. I am supportive of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal, and had called for years for the policy to be overturned. But my job was to get the treaty done.’’
• In one of the biggest triumphs of his 25-year Senate career, Kerry managed to keep START on track over the next 10 days despite the fury of key Republicans. He and his allies, including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, fielded an intense lobbying campaign, headquartered in a quick-response war room that hummed with staff members.
• The effort was aided by a critical last-minute, classified intelligence briefing and pressure from high-ranking military officers, applied at key moments throughout more than 70 hours of floor debate over the past week. In the end, yesterday’s bipartisan 71-26 vote in favor of the treaty completed a dramatic path for an arms pact that seemed close to failure several times in the past month.
• “My hat’s off to the Democratic leadership; they’re running rings around us,’’ a frustrated Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters this week as the last votes for START were falling into place. “They’re like Sherman going through Georgia here.’’
• The victory helped Kerry ascend more firmly into the role of senior statesman from Massachusetts, a role he inherited after the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy last year, as he spent hour after hour, day after day, alternately wooing and debating colleagues...“He was masterful — diplomatic, cordial, patient, persistent,’’ said Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation dedicated to peace and security. “He never let a single charge go unanswered. He accommodated where he could and resisted where he had to.’’

The Senate passed New START. What's next? - Robert Kagan for The Washington Post [link]

• The Senate's passage of the resolution of ratification of the New START treaty should be greeted as good news by sensible people interested in a sound American foreign and defense policy...And while bipartisanship is not always a virtue, in this case it has positive ramifications in the real world. Other nations need to know, at a moment when there are doubts, that the American political system can pull itself together and make a decision. Note how many of America's allies weighed in before the vote in favor of passage.
• This was not just about the merits of the treaty. It was an implicit plea for the United States to show some domestic unity as a necessary foundation for world leadership. The idea that Washington could tie itself in partisan knots over such a small matter was disturbing to those who are finding themselves once again in need of a strong and capable United States.
• Even Obama-hating Republicans need to remember that we have only one president at a time, and it's in our national interest that he be regarded around the world as someone who can speak and act with broad national support. In this case, he earned that support by working hard to address the legitimate concerns of the other party.
• Those concerned about the administration's "reset" policy toward Russia should also be glad about passage...Had the treaty been defeated, any failures and setbacks on those issues would have been blamed on Republicans. Passage of New START means that responsibility will fall where it belongs: on Moscow and on the limitations of reset.
• Many observers believe the fight over New START was just about politics. Now that the fight is behind us, let's hope that the president and his opponents prove otherwise.

Obama Scores Win with New START Ratification - Jim Lobe for IPS [link]

• U.S. President Barack Obama scored key wins Wednesday in both foreign policy and domestic politics as more than the required two-thirds of the Senate - including 13 Republicans who defied their party's leadership - voted to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia.
• Obama hailed the bipartisan outcome during a short-notice press conference in which he claimed that it "sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security...This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades, and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with Russia," he declared.
• On the foreign policy front, ratification not only preserves Obama's vision of strengthening the global nuclear non- proliferation regime and promoting a gradual global denuclearisation remain alive.  More immediately, it also gives renewed momentum to his much-heralded "re-set" of relations with Russia. Moscow's cooperation on Obama's two most pressing overseas priorities - curbing Iran's nuclear programme and prosecuting Washington's counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan - is seen here as critical to prospects for their success.
• On the political front, the fact that so many Republicans voted with the administration confirms the existence of serious internal differences - at least on national security issues - that can be effectively exploited by Obama, even as it faces a new, more Republican Congress next month.
• "In the end, over one-quarter of the Republican Caucus took the advice of the Joint Chiefs and nearly every living former secretary of defence and state over the recommendations of Jon Kyl and John Bolton," said Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, one of the treaty's major non-governmental backers.  "Their extreme views advocating more weapons and more wars have been rejected by those who know them best," he went on. "This is a very hopeful sign for future debates on nuclear policy, on military action and on military budgets."

A secret journey to take Serbian nuclear fuel to safety - Gordon Corera for BBC News [link]

• A shipment of nuclear fuel has arrived in Russia after a top-secret international operation to remove it from Serbia, where it was feared terrorists could seize it to make a nuclear or dirty bomb.  This is the largest shipment of its type ever made, and will clear Serbia of all its civilian highly enriched uranium.
• Negotiating the route and gaining permission for the material to pass through countries that would accept it took five years of planning, and close co-operation between US, Russian officials and International Atomic Energy (IAEA) officials.
• The Vinca fuel rods are considered particularly dangerous because of their handy size (about 15cm/6in long) and the fact that their radioactivity has lessened, making them easier to handle.  This makes them ideal for a so-called dirty bomb.  "You can put it in your hand. You can wrap a stick of dynamite around it and you can put it in your backpack or purse," explains John Kelly of the IAEA, "and you can create a disaster in just about any city."
• In 2009, President Obama announced an international effort to secure all vulnerable material in the following four years.  "This is the sixth country we've cleared out of all highly enriched uranium since President Obama's speech," explains Sarah Dickerson of the US National Nuclear Security Administration who followed the material through from Vinca to Koper.  "There's a lot of work that still remains to be done."

Note:  This will be the last edition of Morning Joe until Monday, January 3, 2011.  As such, the MJ staff at Ploughshares would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday and a happy New Year!