Nuclear Summit Signals Shift in Global Strategy

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:

Analysis: Nuclear Summit Signals New Mindset - The Associated Press 

• Almost 20 years after the Cold War's end, after the end of the chilling U.S.-Russian nuclear standoff of mutually assured destruction, President Barack Obama ushered in the new era with an unprecedented, 47-nation summit to begin to confront this ultimate threat.
• From the highest levels, it conferred top priority on what is planned as a continuing effort to better marshal global resources to keep the stuff of nuclear bombs — plutonium and highly enriched uranium — out of the hands of terrorists and smugglers.
• Egypt boasted of new legislation criminalizing trafficking in nuclear goods, for example, and Malaysia of a law tightening export controls. Ukraine, Mexico and others vowed to give up their highly enriched uranium. And the leaders' final communique endorsed Obama's goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.
• "We are drifting toward a catastrophe beyond comparison," Obama quoted Albert Einstein as saying in those early years. "We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

Press Conference by the President at the Nuclear Security Summit - The White House [link]

• Today’s progress was possible because these leaders came not simply to talk, but to take action; not simply to make vague pledges of future action, but to commit to meaningful steps that they are prepared to implement right now.
• I also want to thank my colleagues for the candor and cooperative spirit that they brought to the discussions. This was not a day of long speeches or lectures on what other nations must do. We listened to each other, with mutual respect. We recognized that while different countries face different challenges, we have a mutual interest in securing these dangerous materials.
• Today, we are declaring that nuclear terrorism is one of the most challenging threats to international security. We also agreed that the most effective way to prevent terrorists and criminals from acquiring nuclear materials is through strong nuclear security -- protecting nuclear materials and preventing nuclear smuggling.
• Our work today not only advances the security of the United States, it advances the security of all mankind, and preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism will remain one of my highest priorities as President.

Obama's Policy Process More Orderly Than Bush's - David Ignatius in The Arizona Daily Star [link]

• When Obama administration officials discuss their foreign- policy approach, they often use the term "regular order." It actually refers to the normal rules of the House and Senate, where so many of them worked before.
• White House officials think they are finally hitting this bureaucratic cruising speed, well into the second year of Obama's presidency. They have created a system that is framing and launching national security initiatives - pop, pop, pop - across a range of global topics.
• A big strategic initiative has been rumbling down the policy pike: The idea is to move away from the old paradigm about nuclear danger - the image of warheads atop missiles - to the new threat of nuclear terrorism.
• This change in nuclear strategy has been urged in a blizzard of bipartisan policy papers over the last few years, but it takes a disciplined National Security Council to make the change happen. That's where Obama and regular order come in.

Obama: China Joining UN Talks on Iran - The Associated Press [link]

• [Presidents] Hu and Obama met for 90 minutes on Monday after which U.S. officials said the two agreed to tell their aides to work on a tough new sanctions program.
• ''The Chinese are obviously concerned about what harm this might have on the economy generally,'' Obama said. ''Iran is an oil-producing state. ... A lot of countries around the world have trade relationships with Iran and we're mindful of that.''
• But Obama said Hu had assured him that China would participate in drafting sessions at the United Nations on a new tough sanctions regime.

US, Russia, Sign Protocol to Dispose of 17 Thousand Weapons' Worth of Plutonium - ABC News [link]

• As the first Nuclear Security Summit began coming to a close, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed that their countries would each dispose up at least 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium – 68 metric tons total -- enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.
• The agreement came in the form of an updated version of the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement first agreed to by both countries ten years ago.
• “It is certainly a step in our shared goal of nuclear disarmament because apart from limitations and reduction of arms, you need to do something with the plutonium,” Lavrov said, adding that the US and Russia hope to expand the treaty to other countries.

Nuclear Review Shows Bipartisanship - William Perry and James Schlesinger in Politico [link]

• As the chairman and vice chairman of Congress’s bipartisan Strategic Posture Commission, which issued its report last May, we have watched with great interest the administration’s steady progress this past year on its Nuclear Posture Review and the START negotiations.
• Now that the NPR is completed, we see that it is compatible with our recommendations. The review gives a comprehensive and pragmatic plan for reducing nuclear risks to the United States. We believe it offers a bipartisan path forward.
• We support the NPR’s call for the U.S. not to develop new nuclear weapons now. Our report similarly called for a case-by-case approach to extending the life of today’s warheads. And we agree that the focus should be on safety, security and reliability — not developing new military capabilities.

A New START for American Security - Alexandra Bell in the Ashville Citizen-Times [link]

• The Cold War has been over for twenty years, but the US and Russia still keep an estimated total of 22,000 nuclear weapons - enough nuclear bombs to destroy the planet thousands of times over.
• That is why the US signed a new agreement with the Russians on April 8th to reduce the dangerously bloated nuclear stockpiles in both nations. This move by the Administration will make our country safer and improve our ability to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
• There will be opposition to this treaty among those on the far right. Unfortunately, this opposition will stem from reckless partisan politics, not concern for American security. 
• Americans should listen to venerated moderates like George Schultz and Brent Scowcroft, who see that this new agreement serves U.S. interests and not to the ideological extremists who are looking to score political points.

A View from the Dark Side

Gaffney: Obama, the Disarmer in Chief - The Washington Times [link]

• Sarah Palin clearly has gotten under President Obama's skin with her sharp critique of his muddle-headed pursuit of U.S. denuclearization. In response, Mr. Obama felt compelled to note that he wasn't acting on his own.
• It appears to have taken the policy equivalent of sustained waterboarding to bring the Pentagon leadership around to support much of Mr. Obama's anti-nuclear agenda.
• The Pentagon leadership doubtless is consoling itself that at least it staved off still more radical aspects of the Obama denuclearization agenda.