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Kate Farmer

Cutting to the chase

Alle Stories

Erstellt am: 26. 3. 2012 - 16:16 Uhr

The American non-nuclear dream

Reality Check: Nuclear summit, Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, Austrian politics, James Cameron at the bottom of the ocean, Pirate Bay and drones

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When President Obama called for a "world without nuclear weapons" at his speech in Prague in 2009, it sounded brave and ambitious, if not a little naive. It was a sentiment that may have edged him towards his Nobel Peace Prize, but not something most people thought was achievable - at least, not in the foreseeable future.

Ahead of the second summit aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism, Obama says "We can already say with confidence that we have more nuclear weapons than we need". Of course, there is a school of thought that says with confidence that any nuclear weapons at all are more than anyone needs, but we need to start somewhere. Russia and the US are by far the largest nuclear countries, and Obama is keen to advance the START treaty agreed with Moscow last year.

However, the really tricky deal is not between the US and Russia, but with China, which is believed to have a secretive, but rapidly growing, nuclear weapons programme.

Ironically, this summit is taking place in the shadow of North Korea's announcement that it is to launch a long range rocket next month. Even North Korea's long time ally, China, is expressing concern over that, any maybe those concerns will lead to a more positive attitude towards Obamas dream of a nuclear free world.