"I find hope in the work of long-established groups such as the Arms Control Association...[and] I find hope in younger anti-nuclear activists and the movement around the world to formally ban the bomb."
Editor's Note
In some areas of nuclear weapons policy, the Obama administration has made significant changes and is beginning to see results. In other areas, the administration has sketched out policies but has not yet implemented them. In still other areas, the policies are being formulated even now.
The results of new approaches were visible in last month's meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference. In her feature article on the meeting, Rebecca Johnson sees the situation as significantly improved from the comparable point in the run-up to the 2005 review conference. But she also highlights some major issues and obstacles that need to be addressed in the coming year to bring about a successful review conference and a successful follow-up, carrying out whatever agreements are reached at the conference.
Another recent example of changes leading to success is the adoption of a program of work in the Conference on Disarmament, a long-awaited development that Cole Harvey covers in our news section.
Budgets provide a good window into an administration's thinking and priorities. The fiscal year 2010 budget request clearly reflects some Obama policies, but not others. Our news section provides detailed coverage of key parts of the budget request dealing with nuclear weapons policy.
A large part of the administration's nuclear weapons policy depends on the outcome of the Nuclear Posture Review to be completed within the next year. The report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States, which was released last month, was designed to inform the administration's review. In our cover story, Hans Kristensen and Ivan Oelrich dissect the report and find it wanting, not only in relation to President Barack Obama's April 5 Prague speech, but also in relation to the goals that Congress set for the commission.
In another policy area, the Obama administration appears to be pondering changes in policies dealing with non-nuclear weapons. British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Bill Rammell, in an interview with Arms Control Today, said he saw signs of a change in the U.S. position on a legally binding arms trade treaty. The United States has been against the pact.
Finally, as a sad coda to our coverage of unfolding change in policies on arms control and disarmament, we mark the death of Herbert York. As Katherine Magraw makes clear in her tribute, he was a giant in the field.