Morning Joe: Why Nuclear Disarmament Needs a Youth Movement

Stories we're following today:

Disarmament Movement Needs Youth Involvement to Counter Cynicism - World Politics Review [link]

• There is no reason to believe that the disarmament community -- fueled by moral conviction, confronted with a significant national and international security threat, and powered by a sitting U.S. president who himself has benefited greatly from youth movements -- cannot capitalize on this obvious source of energy to raise awareness, create political pressure and reject errant policies of the past. The success of the "zero nukes" movement is tied to its ability to reach this group.
• Only a grassroots youth movement, one free from Cold War-era assumptions about nuclear weapons' centrality to national and international security, can power such an effort.
• Note: Some leading disarmament organizations like Global Zero and the Two Futures Project are forming youth organizations and advancing the case for global nuclear disarmament.  Contact them and get involved.

Clinton's nuclear talking points - The Cable [link]

• Last week in Thailand, Hillary Clinton turned a few heads when she said the United States would extend a "defense umbrella" to its allies in the Middle East, including Gulf states that have become increasingly nervous about Iran's nuclear intentions.
• In retrospect, it's hard to know if she was speaking her brief too candidly, just got out ahead of herself, or if her comments reflected the counsel of her team of nonproliferation advisors. Or, as one official says, she did none of the above, and there's no there there.

UAE Nuclear Deal: Atoms for Peace or Bombs for Sneaks? - Henry Sokolski in The Washington Times [link]

• At a hearing July 8, House Foreign Affairs Committee members worried aloud that the deal with the United Arab Emirates might not be the needed "peaceful" alternative to the situation in Iran, a country accused of trying to exploit civilian nuclear energy to make bombs.
• Committee members raised three sticking points... [including] Our diplomats need to approach the other key nuclear suppliers about adopting the nonproliferation conditions of the U.S.-United Arab Emirates deal. So far, they haven't.
• Henry Sokolski is the Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center - a Ploughshares Grantee.

Gerson: How Does This Engagement Thing Work? - Wonk Room [link]

• It seems that [The Washington Post's] Michael Gerson is trying really hard to miss the larger picture when it comes to President Obama’s engagement strategy...
• In other words, what Gerson identifies as “the paradox of the Obama doctrine” — that “by attempting to engage North Korea and Iran so visibly, Obama is… building the case for confrontation” — is actually one element of the strategy. By showing a genuine willingness to exhaust diplomatic options and making clear to the international community who the recalcitrant parties are in each case, the U.S. can generate greater international resolve to deal with the problematic regimes like Iran and North Korea.
• Nod to Democracy Arsenal - [link]

Interview with John Bolton - The Daily Show [link]