A "Springtime of Hope" for Disarmament

"We are certainly in a springtime of hope after the dark winter of discontent in the disarmament field," said Ploughshares Fund advisor Jayantha Dhanapala, following a speech to the UN by Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama Adminstration's chief disarmament official. In the clearest American pledge in a decade in support of international nuclear agreements, she said that the United States will press India, Pakistan and Israel to sign a pact against the spread of arms. The administration will also urge the Senate to revive and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In making an unambiguous commitment to the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty, Gottemoeller signaled the reversal of the policies of George W. Bush, under which international agreements were downplayed in favor of case-by-case deals with nations known to have nuclear weapons but refusing to adhere to treaties governing them.

United Nations Association