Ploughshares grantees comment on Obama's 100 days

As President Obama completed his first 100 days in office, analysts are reviewing his performance.  Efforts to achieve a nuclear-free world, particularly after his Palm Sunday speech in Prague, have drawn praise internationally.  As Ploughshares Fund President Joe Cirincione commented for The Atlantic, “In London and Prague, Obama began the transformation of U.S. nuclear weapons policy. Now, the challenge is to implement this vision.”

Already, though, President Obama is taking steps demonstrating his commitment to the issue.  In a review of his term thus far, the Ploughshares-funded Council for a Livable World highlighted President Obama’s steps to: negotiate a new treaty with Russia reducing nuclear warheads and stockpiles; pursue ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT); strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) – including international inspections; end production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and secure existing materials within four years; and host a Global Summit on Nuclear Security within the next year. 

A recent Washington Post poll reports that 67 percent of Americans approve of the President’s handling of international affairs.  The rest of the world apparently agrees: the Council for a Livable World writes, “As seen in his recent travels to Europe and Latin American, the international community appreciates a President who listens and discusses rather than lectures and threatens.”

Grantee Gordon Adams praises President Obama in the Bulletin for the Atomic Scientists for foreign policy and assistance plans, as well as efforts to discipline the defense budgeting process.  In other areas, however, Adams says “the most appropriate grade [for President Obama] at the moment is probably an incomplete.”  He cautions that although the administration has been bombarded with pressing issues since Inauguration Day, they must put in place “the budgets, structures, and processes that will allow them to escape the siren song of improvisation and begin to set a course toward longer-term strategic planning for foreign policy and national security.”

As Adams acknowledges, “Clearly, 100 days aren't enough to answer every question or quell every doubt.”  But if President Obama has managed to do so much in just a short time, we can be hopeful about the remaining 1,000 days.