Obama's Forthcoming Nuclear Policy Speech

by Joseph Cirincione

This is the nuclear policy speech we have been waiting for.

President Obama will make a landmark nuclear policy speech in Prague this Sunday April 5th.

Today, speaking to a crowd in Strasbourg, President Obama said, “Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons, or the theft of nuclear material, could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet.”

Promoting his coming speech the President said, “This weekend in Prague I will lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”

This is big. The President of the United States is set to establish a new frame for our nuclear policy. He answers the central question of what is the purpose of nuclear weapons? His answer is that the central goal of U.S. nuclear policy is to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Such a declaration would be a historic statement from a sitting US president, and President Obama is offering it with a policy agenda.  All specific policy steps would serve that strategic objective.

Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs offered more specifics on the speech. Gibbs said that the President Obama will reaffirm his call for a world without nuclear weapons. Gibbs also indicated that the President will get into some of the pressing policy issues, possibly including negotiations with Russia and CTBT ratification.

If President Obama’s speech meets expectations it would fundamentally change how the US views its nuclear weapons –as a liability rather than an asset. It could also set the US on the road to a safer, nuclear weapons-free world.

Stay tuned.