How to reduce the nuclear threat

"The spread of weapons-usable nuclear technologies may push the world to a dangerous tipping point," wrote former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former National Security Advisor Brent Snowcroft, and Dr. Charles Ferguson, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Ploughshares Fund grantee, in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. "North Korea -- despite nearly universal opposition -- has developed a small nuclear arsenal and on Monday demonstrated its capability with a successful nuclear test. "To prevent further proliferation, the Obama administration needs to leverage the next 12 months in the run-up to the May 2010 Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference...The U.S. must redouble global efforts to enact the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear weapons, call for a ban on the production of fissile material for weapons, and provide sustainable resources to the International Atomic Energy Agency -- the world's 'nuclear watchdog.'"

Though it may take many years, they wrote, “unless the U.S. and its partners re-energize international efforts to lessen the present dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, they will never have the hope of reaching this long-term objective.”