Money for Obama’s nuclear upgrades better spent on conventional weapons

On the first day of the Nuclear Security Summit, author Lawrence J. Korb argues that President Barack Obama should take his last opportunity to reduce the role of nuclear weapons.

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As they prepare to leave office, presidents often seek to do something about nuclear weapons. President Bill Clinton tried to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, only to be blocked by a Republican Congress. President Ronald Reagan negotiated a treaty with the Soviet Union banning intermediate-range nuclear forces, and dreamed of doing away with nuclear weapons altogether.

President Barack Obama entered office concerned about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. In his April 2009 Prague speech, Obama pledged “to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” His initial efforts produced a stabilizing arms-control treaty with Russia and a series of international summits that made modest progress in securing nuclear material. Since then, however, the effort to control the world’s most dangerous weapons has stagnated.

The above excerpt was originally published in Reuters. Click here to view the full article.

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