Current and former U.S. officials believe that nuclear arms control has become a central force in President Barack Obama's international strategy, most notably in his policies on Iran, North Korea and Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, July 9).
White House officials have sought to echo former President Ronald Reagan's efforts to engage traditional antagonists on nonproliferation issues, according to several officials. In preparing for Obama's meeting last week with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev -- which produced a "joint understanding" on bilateral nuclear reductions -- administration officials pored over details of Reagan's initial encounters with then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, one high-level official said.
Obama has also kept the door open for nuclear diplomacy with Iran and North Korea, even while criticizing Tehran's crackdown on election protesters and seeking to penalize Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.
"His view is: If this is the No. 1 threat that we face, we need to address it with urgency," said Benjamin Rhodes, Obama's top speechwriter on national security issues. "For nonproliferation to work, you have to do everything at once."
An emphasis on arms control can co-exist with attention to other crucial issues, he said in response to criticism on how the administration has dealt with nations that have questionable records on democracy and human rights.
"You can walk and chew gum on these issues," according to Rhodes.
Obama's focus on nonproliferation was largely shaped by his collaboration in Congress with Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a leading arms control advocate who helped establish the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, present and past advisers to the president said (see GSN, June 26). The president wants to
revamp the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other pillars of the arms control system, they said.
"I believe we are at a tipping point," former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft said. "If we fail in Iran, we're going to have a number of countries go the same route Iran has just in self-defense. Egypt will, Saudi Arabia will, Turkey will. In Northeast Asia, if we can't deal with North Korea, the Japanese are going to say: 'We'll have to do it ourselves.'"
Former Representative Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) also helped determine the course of Obama's thinking as one of his unofficial advisers, White House sources noted. "(Obama) has really kind of clicked with that old school, end-of-the-Cold-War wise men generation," one official said (Peter Spiegel, Wall Street Journal, July 15).