Taking the Field: Obama's Nuclear Reforms
US President Barack Obama’s nuclear-security agenda is in trouble. It is behind schedule, under-staffed, under attack and battered by some less-than-cooperative international partners. Critics of the administration have dominated the domestic public debate. But after a year of analysis, discussion and speeches, the Obama administration has reached internal consensus, lined up its nuclear initiatives, and begun organising its congressional supporters. The Obama team is finally ready to take the field.
The new strategy will roll out in a tight sequence of reports, events, hearings and votes over the first half of 2010. The overall goal is to transition US nuclear policy from one still based on a Cold War strategy of massive arsenals to one suited to prevent, deter and defeat the more discrete threats of the twenty-first century.
Roll-out
Until now, the administration could claim only two deliverables to back up the president’s agenda announced in Prague on 4 April 2009. It replaced the Bush administration’s technically challenged plan to counter future Iranian long-range missiles by basing interceptor missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic with the adaptive deployment of anti-missile systems in the Mediterranean aimed at the existing Iranian short- and medium-range missile threat. Obama also convened and chaired on 24 September 2009 an historic session of the United Nations Security Council that won endorsement of Resolution 1887, establishing new commitments to non-proliferation and disarmament objectives.
During this period, the president’s political opponents relentlessly attacked his plans. Of the congressional statements on nuclear policy made in early autumn 2009, more than 70% were from those critical of the president’s agenda, while only one in ten was from allies, according to a private media audit. The disparity was particularly pronounced in broadcasts, the study found, where 78% of hits were from opposition sources. This is about to change.
Survival