It is 6 minutes to midnight

The Ploughshares-funded Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced today the move of the minute hand of the "Doomsday Clock" by one minute.  This decision emphasizses how much needs to be accomplished, while at the same time recognizes signs of collaboration among the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, China, Brazil and others on nuclear security and on climate stabilization. A key to the new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government's orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Barack Obama, notes a Bulletin editorial. The changing views of world leaders, sparked in part by George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry (a member of the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors) and Sam Nunn, have lent credibility to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and have opened a wider public debate , on the role of nuclear weapons in national security.