NPR Shifts to 21st Century Threats

We are happy to serve you a daily summary of the day's top nuclear policy stories each morning, with excerpts from the stories in bullet form.

Stories we're following today:

A Comprehensive Nuclear Arms Strategy - Vice President Joe Biden in the Los Angeles Times [link]

• When I joined the Senate in 1973, crafting nuclear policy meant mastering arcane issues like nuclear stability and deterrence theory.
• From now on, decisions about the number of weapons we have and how they are deployed will take nonproliferation and counter-terrorism into account, rather than being solely based on the objective of stable deterrence.
• [Our] approach provides additional incentive for countries to fully comply with nonproliferation norms. Those that do not will be more isolated and less secure.
• Although we will not develop new warheads or add military capabilities as we manage our arsenal for the future, we will pursue needed life-extension programs so the weapons we retain can be sustained.
• This approach has broad support, and, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates states in his preface to the Nuclear Posture Review, it is a "credible modernization plan necessary to sustain the nuclear infrastructure and support our nation's deterrent." 

Mr. Obama's Nuclear Strategy - The New York Times [link]

• In a very dangerous time, President Obama is taking important steps to make the world safer and bolster this country’s credibility as it tries to constrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran, North Korea and others.
• On Tuesday, Mr. Obama released his Nuclear Posture Review. It does not go as far as it should, but it is an important down payment on a saner nuclear policy.
• It would have been better if Mr. Obama made the “sole” purpose of nuclear weapons deterring a nuclear attack. No one in their right mind can imagine the United States ever using a nuclear weapon again. America’s vast conventional military superiority is more than enough to defend against most threats.
• The stakes for this country’s security are high. And most Americans aren’t paying attention. Mr. Obama has a strong argument. He will need to push back hard.

Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of the Nuclear Posture Review - The White House [link]

• Today, my Administration is taking a significant step forward by fulfilling another pledge that I made in Prague—to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and focus on reducing the nuclear dangers of the 21st century, while sustaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent for the United States and our allies and partners as long as nuclear weapons exist.
• The Nuclear Posture Review, led by the Department of Defense, recognizes that the greatest threat to U.S. and global security is no longer a nuclear exchange between nations, but nuclear terrorism by violent extremists and nuclear proliferation to an increasing number of states.
• As a result, we are taking specific and concrete steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons while preserving our military superiority, deterring aggression and safeguarding the security of the American people.
  
  

Obama's Nuclear Strategy Splits Many Differences - Jonathan Landay and Margaret Talev for McClatchy [link]

• With the new nuclear arms strategy he unveiled on Tuesday, President Barack Obama aims to prod the world toward disarmament and stronger anti-terrorism efforts by rallying disparate interests — arms controllers, U.S. allies, nuclear- and non-nuclear nations and Republicans and other military hawks back home.
• Still, as is characteristic of many of Obama's major policy initiatives, the new strategy isn't as far-reaching as liberals had hoped, nor as conservatives had feared. It contains initiatives sought by both sides.
• The strategy also calls for a major program to modernize the country's aging nuclear weapons facilities, some of which date back to World War II, at a cost of about $5 billion over the next five years, acknowledging but not entirely satisfying a key Republican demand.

Obama Understands Post-Cold War World - Sen. John Kerry in The Hill's Congress Blog [link]

• The result of President Obama’s steely-eyed thinking in his Nuclear Posture Review is a substantive statement that maintains our nuclear deterrence while addressing the new security challenges we face. Finally, America’s nuclear policy reflects post-Cold War reality.
• The challenge was to reduce our dependence on nuclear weapons, both for our security and to prove to that the United States is serious about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, without diluting America’s strategic deterrent one iota.
• It’s clear that with this report, the new START Treaty, and this year’s budget proposal to increase funding for nuclear scientific research and the strengthening of our nuclear infrastructure, the President is strengthening our national security to meet today’s most pressing threats, not Cold War phantoms.

U.S. Narrows Role of Nuclear Arms - The Wall Street Journal [link]

• The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled a nuclear weapons strategy that establishes new, formal limits on their use.
• Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, who has emerged as the leading Republican critic of Mr. Obama's nuclear policies, said he was troubled by the decision to take several non-nuclear threats off the U.S.'s target list.
• Joseph Cirincione, head of the Ploughshares Fund, said that while the new policy was a "compromise document," it was a major shift from the Bush administration, which sought to widen the uses of nuclear weapons.
• "This crystallizes the new, centrist consensus on nuclear weapons," said Mr. Cirincione, who spoke with senior administration officials about the policy at the White House on Tuesday. "It establishes the consensus that nuclear weapons are more of a liability than an asset."

From the NPR Critics

Morning Bell: The Road to a New Nuclear Arms Race - The Heritage Foundation [link]

• Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions.
• To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary.
• Unfortunately for Americans, President Obama’s new strategy will have the exact opposite result of its intended effect.
• Instead of incentivizing countries to give up nuclear ambitions, it creates new incentives for them to maintain or develop their own nuclear programs.

Obama's Scary Nuke Plan - K.T. McFarland for Fox News [link]

• Today President Obama reversed 60 years of U.S. nuclear policy and pledged we would not retaliate with nuclear weapons were we -- or our treaty allies --- attacked with conventional, biological or chemical weapons by nations in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• He hopes that other nuclear weapons states will follow suit with a similar pledge and we will be well on our way to a world without nuclear weapons. In addition, by carving out those rogue states not in compliance, like North Korea and Iran, the president will give them sufficient incentive to drop their nuclear weapons programs.
• That's a lot of change resting on nothing more than awful lot of hope.
• the real issue with Obama's new nuclear policy is it fails to check the rise of rogue nuclear states like Iran and North Korea, or to deal with sub-national terrorist groups -- like Al Qaeda -- who he admits are seeking nuclear weapons.
• President Obama believes in peace through unilateral concessions. Not only is it unlikely to work, it might even contribute to ending the peace.

Obama's Poor Posture - The Washington Times [link]

• The new U.S. nuclear posture puts the country flat on its back.
• Mr. Obama's nuclear strategy is long on ideology and short on common sense. It reflects the mindset of those on the left who came of age during the "nuclear freeze" movement, who see nuclear weapons as an evil to be eliminated, not as a useful deterrent that has contributed to limiting conflict for the last 60 years.
• Mr. Obama desires to set an example for others to follow, but this backdoor disarmament is a gift to America's nuclear adversaries.

Stories Related to the Obama Administration's Nuclear Policy Agenda

Taking the Field: Obama's Nuclear Forms - Survival [link]

• After a year of analysis, discussion and speeches, the Obama administration has reached internal consensus, lined up its nuclear initiatives, and begun organising its congressional supporters.
• The Obama team is finally ready to take the field.
• While reaffirming the vision of what he called in Prague ‘the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons’, the president reframed his plans as a comprehensive approach to prevent nuclear terrorism, roll back proliferation and avert any use of nuclear weapons.
• The secret to Obama’s nuclear-security agenda is that it is not really his idea.
• Obama has embraced what has become a widespread view among mainstream security experts and officials: that the vision of a nuclear- weapons-free world coupled with practical steps on how to achieve it offers our best defense against the rising nuclear threats that previous strategies have failed to stem.

Crackdown Sought on Nuclear Material - The Wall Street Journal [link]

• A proposed communiqué calls for leaders from more than 40 countries to endorse a global crackdown on the illicit trade of nuclear material at a summit in Washington next week.
• The communiqué calls for tougher criminal prosecution of traffickers, better accounting for weapons-grade nuclear materials and more international collaboration in such cases. The international community must "effectively prevent and respond to incidents of illicit nuclear trafficking," the draft says.
• The U.S.'s primary goal for the summit is to refocus global attention on proliferation amid concern that previous efforts to curtail the spread of atomic technology and material have fallen short.
• The proposed communiqué also reaffirms the "essential" role of the IAEA in policing compliance with existing international nuclear treaties and calls on states to cooperate in developing databases of incidents of suspected illicit trafficking.