Acronym Blog | Disarmament Diplomacy | Disarmament Documentation | News Updates

United States

President Barack Obama took office against a background of increasing calls for progress on a range of urgent non-proliferation, security and disarmament challenges. With particular relevance for US nuclear policy, these include CTBT entry into force, (which requires ratification by the US Senate, as well as 8 remaining countries); fissile material negotiations currently held up by a stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament; and further deep cuts in existing nuclear arsenals – between them, Russia and the United States still have over 20,000 nuclear weapons.

In April 2010, the US and Russia secured the bilateral nuclear weapons reduction treaty New START - a follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which formally expired in December 2009. The new treaty was ratified by the US Senate on 22 December 2010. Right until the day of the vote, ratification by the Senate was far from certain with some Republicans, most notably Senator Jon Kyl, attempting to block ratification by arguing that the treaty would restrict US missile defence and jeopardise national security interests. After much debate and several prominent figures announcing their support for the treaty, the Obama Administration managed to win over key Republicans to secure a clear majority (71-26). The Russian Duma subsequently ratified the treaty on 25 January 2011. Since then, US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, has indicated that CTBT ratification will be next in line.

Selected statements and speeches:

Final Joint Press Statement from the First P5 follow-up meeting to the 2010 NPT Review Conference, Paris, 30 June - 1 July 2011
Ellen Tauscher, The Case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 10 May 2011
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Urges Conference on Disarmament to open FMCT Negotiations without delay, 28 February 2011
US Senate votes for Russian nuclear arms treaty, The Guardian, 22 December 2010
The Case for New START from the Joint Chiefs: "We Need It Badly", 16 December 2010
Ratify the New Start Treaty By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 6 December 2010
The Case for Ratifying New Start, WSJ Op-Ed by US Vice-President Joe Biden, 24 November 2010
President Obama on the need to ratify New START, 20 November 2010
Clinton and Gates: Why the Senate should ratify New START by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert M. Gates, 15 November 2010
Draft New START Resolution to US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 3 September 2010
Letter to senators from seven former U.S. military commanders of Strategic Air Command and U.S. Strategic Command in support of New START, 14 July 2010
United States Closing Statement to NPT Review Conference 2010, 28 May 2010
US National Security Strategy, 27 May 2010
Nuclear Security Summit Key Facts, 14 April 2010
Nuclear Security Summit Communique, 14 April 2010
Nuclear Security Summit Work Plan, 14 April 2010
Nuclear Security Summit Work Plan Reference, 14 April 2010
START Treaty, 8 April 2010
START Protocol, 8 April 2010
US President Barack Obama Speech in Prague on New START Treaty, 8 April 2010
Op-Ed in the LA Times by Vice-President Joe Biden: "A Comprehensive Nuclear Arms Strategy", 7 April 2010
2010 Nuclear Posture Review Report, US Department of Defense, 6 April 2010
Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review, 6 April 2010
Joe Biden speech on 'The Path to Nuclear Security: Implementing the President’s Prague Agenda', at the National Defense University, 18 February 2010
Hillary Clinton speech on the ‘Future of European Security’ at L’Ecole Militaire, Paris, 29 January 2010
President Obama debut address to the UN General Assembly, New York, 23 September 2009
President Obama speech to New Economics Foundation, Moscow, 7 July 2009
Nuclear powers come in from the cold, by Rebecca Johnson on the START negotiations, Comment is Free, www.guardian.co.uk, 7 July 2009.
Joint Understanding on Strategic Offensive Arms, 8 July 2009

Coverage from Acronym

Nuclear Testing and Proliferation - an Inextricable Connection, by Thomas Graham, Jr. and David Hafemeister, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
Unfinished Business: Lessons from the CTBT Negotiations, by Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009
US-Russia Strategic Arms Talks, Nuclear Non-Proliferation News, Summer 2009
Towards CTBT ratification, Nuclear Non-Proliferation News, Summer 2009
Draft UN Security Council Resolution on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, 11 September 2009
US - UAE Nuclear Cooperation, Disarmament News Review, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.91, Summer 2009

Carnegie Nuclear Non-Proliferation Conference, April 2009

Acronym Institute Executive Director Dr Rebecca Johnson was part of a plenary panel on International Expectations of the Obama Administration, chaired by Naila Bolus of the Ploughshares Fund.

Transcripts, video and audio recordings of the panel are available from the CEIP website at: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/?fa=eventDetail&id=1301

Background documentation

Nuclear Policy

Ellen Tauscher, The Case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 10 May 2011
US Under Secretary for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher comments on US deterrence posture, 30 July 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton address to the Council on Foreign Relations, 15 July 2009
President Obama calls for Non-Proliferation Summit, G8 press conference, 10 July 2009
US - UAE Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher testimony, 8 July 2009
President Obama speech on Nuclear Disarmament, Prague, 5 April 2009
President Obama Inaugural Address, 21 January 2009
White House Foreign Policy Objectives, 21 January 2009
White House Defense Policy Objectives, 21 January 2009
Hillary Clinton Nomination Hearings To Be Secretary of State, 13 January 2009
US Chair Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry oped on New Directions for Foreign Relations, 13 January 2009
US Defense Secretary Gates on Nuclear Deterrence, 28 October 2008
Barack Obama speech on Nuclear Weapons and Diplomacy, 2 October 2008
Democrat Presidential Candidate Barack Obama on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policy, 26 May 2008

US-Russia Relations and START

US-Russia Joint Understanding on strategic offensive arms, 8 July 2009
Presidents Obama and Medvedev Press Conference, 6 July 2009
Clinton / Lavrov press conference, 7 May 2009
Joint Statement by Presidents Medvedev and Obama on strategic reductions, 1 April 2009
Joint Statement by Presidents Medvedev and Obama, 1 April 2009
US background briefings on Presidents Obama and Medvedev meeting, 1 April 2009
US Secretary of State Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov meeting, 6 March 2009
US Vice President Joseph Biden, Munich Security Conference, 7 February 2009

Relations with Iran

US Secretary of State Clinton on Iran, 31 March 2009
President Obama on US-Iran relations, 9 February 2009
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Iran, 3 February 2009
US statement on Iran satellite launch, 3 February 2009

Policy on North Korea

US Background briefing on North Korea, 15 July 2009
US Special Representative Stephen W. Bosworth testimony on North Korea, 11 June 2009
US Special Representative Stephen W. Bosworth comments on North Korea, 12 May 2009
US Special Representative Stephen W. Bosworth comments on North Korea, 8 May 2009
US Permanent Representative Rice on UN Presidential Statement on North Korea, 13 April 2009
US Permanent Representative Rice on UN Presidential Statement on North Korea, 11 April 2009
US Ambassador Rice on UN Security Council meeting on the DPRK rocket launch, 5 April 2009
US Ambassador Bosworth briefing on North Korea, 3 April 2009
US Ambassador Bosworth briefing on North Korea, 9 March 2009

Key Documents

Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Proliferation, Wall Street Journal article by George P Shultz, William J Perry, Henry A Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 7 March 2011
Toward a Nuclear-Free World, Wall Street Journal article by George P Shultz, William J Perry, Henry A Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 15 January 2008
A World Free of Nuclear Weapons, Wall Street Journal article by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 4 January 2007

Disarmament Diplomacy

Report I: A New Strategic Posture for the United States and a Nuclear Weapons Complex to Support it, Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation (NWCC) Policy Network, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.90, Spring 2009
Report II: From Counterforce to Minimal Deterrence:
A New Nuclear Policy on the Path Toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, Hans M. Kristensen, Robert S. Norris and Ivan Oelrich, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.90, Spring 2009
US and Russian Public Opinion on Arms Control and Space Security, Nancy Gallagher, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.87, Spring 2008
Two Treaties to Contain Missile Proliferation, by Thomas Graham and Dinshaw Mistry, Proposes two multilateral approaches to curbing missile proliferation, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.82, Spring 2006.
The misbegotten US-India nuclear deal, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.82, Spring 2006.
National Security and Neo-Arms Control in the Bush Administration, by Jeffrey A. Larsen, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No.80, Autumn 2005
From Arms Control to Cooperative Threat Reduction
by Michael Krepon, Disarmament Diplomacy No.75, January/February 2004
Federation of American Scientists reports removal of US nuclear weapons from the UK, 26 June 2008

For an archive of material on US nuclear policy including US-Russia relations go to: www.acronym.org.uk/start.

Back to the Top of the Page