Change nuclear weapons policy? Yes, we can

(Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Ploughshares-funded Arms Control Association, writes that the election of President Barack Obama represents a clear mandate for  transforming outdated U.S. policy on nuclear weapons and reviving U.S. leadership on disarmament and nonproliferation.)

For nearly 40 years, American presidents have expressed their intention to fulfill the U.S. obligation under the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) to pursue "effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament." Still, few presidents have taken that goal seriously, and those who did missed historic opportunities to move closer toward a nuclear weapons-free world.

Under the presidential administration of Barack Obama, U.S. nuclear weapons policy and nonproliferation diplomacy can and must change, or else the global effort to reduce the risk of nuclear war, curb proliferation, and prevent catastrophic terrorism will falter.

Read the full article from Foreign Policy in Focus.