New START a Shift to the Political Center

By Ploughshares Board Member Gloria Duffy

The passage of the New START treaty would be momentous for a number of reasons.

It would:

• Put inspectors back on the ground in Russia,
• Reduce the world's supply of nuclear weapons,
• Re-establish the United States as an international leader on security.

More than anything else in the last days of the 111th Congress, however, the Senate's ratification of the New START treaty would signal the resurgence of the political center.

And we're close. New START looks likely to pass despite the type of extreme partisan political posturing that has torpedoed many of the other major issues that passed through the Senate's last term, and it is likely to pass with bipartisan support. The closer we've gotten to the vote, the more surprising the endorsers -- Patrick Buchanan and Max Boot have joined Catholics United and the Natural Resources Defense Council to urge its passage. The entire military leadership, every living former secretary of state and two former presidents have urged its passage. And thousands of citizens from both red states and blue have called their senators to let them know that it's not acceptable to play partisan politics with the nation's safety.

It's the type of rally around national security that happened after 9/11, but in an entirely different direction. The support for New START signals a security consensus that values engagement with other nations in meaningful partnerships and envisions nuclear weapons as the ultimate problem, not the ultimate solution. This consensus started right here in California in 2007 with a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by four of the nation's elder statesmen: George P. Shultz, Henry A. Kissinger, William J. Perry and Sam Nunn. Drawing on the wisdom built through their long histories at the forefront of America's security, these wise men put out the vision of an end to nuclear weapons, but urged a step-by-step approach.

They noted that, "First and foremost should be intensive work with leaders of the countries in possession of nuclear weapons to turn the goal of a world without nuclear weapons into a joint enterprise ... The program on which agreements should be sought would constitute a series of agreed-on and urgent steps that would lay the groundwork for a world free of the nuclear threat."

New START is one of the initial building blocks of America's joint security enterprise. As we move further down that path, we also move further towards modernizing our nation's military to meet the challenges of the next wars, not the Cold War. A closer partnership with the world's other large power, Russia, is already helping us to contain the illicit nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. Increased transparency in our nation's nuclear policies prevent the likelihood of nuclear accidents, as nuclear states communicate more openly about their weapons programs and concerns. And additional cooperation opens the doors for solutions that were never before possible on our most pressing current challenges, including terrorism and Afghanistan, as we develop regional partnerships where we need them the most.

These results cannot be achieved without determination, cooperation and leadership. New START will only pass with genuine hands-across-the-aisle partnerships built over shared values and common sense. But, the center must refuse to pander to the extreme voices that are seeking to delay and defeat the treaty's passage.

After all the electioneering talk of hands-across-the-aisle and a new way of doing business in Washington, we finally have a model that shows how a bipartisan consensus can win the day. New START is what genuine bipartisanship looks like, and it is a model that will make America safer.

Gloria Duffy is a board member of Ploughshares Fund and former deputy assistant secretary of defense.