Obama’s failure on nuclear disarmament

[Gordons]

What difference did Obama’s speech on nuclear disarmament make to the world? Is it true that North Korea reacted by actually launching a nuclear missile?

 

[L Gilbert]

No-one's been able to get everyone to drop their nuclear arms programs yet. Why should the Big O be any different?

 

[lone wolf]

No leader, no matter how great, will ever put Pandora back in its box.

 

[earth_as_one]

The world including Obama has a progress deadline. The NPT comes up for review next year:

UN seeks therapy for disarmament depression
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

"Words must mean something."
- US President Barack Obama, Prague April 2009.

NEW YORK - In preparation for the 2010 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, the United Nations (UN) is holding a two-week conference that theoretically should culminate in a "consensus report containing recommendations" for next year's conference. There are common concerns about the threats posed by nuclear weapons, but the world community continues to have conflicting priorities with respect to the twin agendas of the NPT, namely, disarmament and non-proliferation.

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs

Currently,

All nuclear possessing powers violate the NPT:

non-governmental organization presentations at the 1999 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee

...the record of the States Parties that are nuclear weapons states. Whatever their rhetoric, all five of them are modernizing their nuclear arsenals. This is a violation of the clause of Article VI of the NPT that calls for an early end to the arms race. The NPT has been in force for almost three decades now. The Berlin Wall fell a decade ago. Yet, nuclear arsenal modernization continues...

IEER | Evaluation of NPT Compliance and the Review Process

Many countries have pursued covert programs:

Nuclear Weapons Programs
Brazil pursued a covert nuclear weapons program in response to Argentina's program. It developed a modest nuclear power program, enrichment facilities (including a large ultracentrifuge enrichment plant and several laboratory-scale facilities), a limited reprocessing capability, a missile program, a uranium mining and processing industry, and fuel fabrication facilities. Brazil was supplied with nuclear materials and equipment by West Germany (which supplied reactors, enrichment and reprocessing facilities), France, and the US. The country has a dependable raw material base for developing atomic power engineering, highly skilled scientific cadres have been trained, technologies for enriching uranium have been obtained, and there are several nuclear research centers.

Brazil's nuclear capabilities are the most advanced in Latin America; only Argentina has provided serious competition. Brazil has two nuclear power plants in operation (Angra I and Angra II) and one under construction (Angra III). Its fissile material production program was multifaceted, with the military services involved in separate projects: the navy, centrifuge enrichment; the air force, laser enrichment; and the army, gas graphite reactor for plutonium production.

Nuclear Weapons Programs - Brazil

A list of who likely has what...

Country Warheads active/total* Year of first test
Five nuclear weapons states from the NPT

United States 4,075 / 5,400[12] 1945 ("Trinity")

Russia (former Soviet Union) 5,162 / 14,000[13] 1949 ("RDS-1")

United Kingdom 160 / 185[14] 1952 ("Hurricane")

France 300 / 300[15] 1960 ("Gerboise Bleue")

China 180 / 240[16] 1964 ("596")

Non-NPT nuclear powers

India 60 / 60[17] 1974 ("Smiling Buddha")

Pakistan 60 / 60[18] 1998 ("Chagai-I")

North Korea <10 / <10[19]

Undeclared nuclear weapons states

Israel 80 / 80[20] unknown or 1979 (See Vela Incident)

List of states with nuclear weapons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NPT non-compliant nations have used/abused the NPT to impose sanctions on NPT compliant nations:

..."The United States remains very concerned that Parties like Iran have violated their commitments and thereby undermined the Treaty."

Now, arguably, the United States is the most flagrant violator of NPT commitments, frequently intervening to prevent other NPT signatories from exercising their "inalienable rights" affirmed under the NPT to access nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, "without discrimination."

So, isn’t this charge that it is "Parties like Iran" that are undermining the NPT just another pile of organic fertilizer? Or is it more sinister?...

...But, by 1998, Director-General ElBaradei was able to report [.pdf] to the Board and to the Security Council that

There were no indications to suggest that Iraq was successful in its attempt to produce nuclear weapons.

There were no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance.

So, upon receipt of that IAEA report – that Iraq’s nuclear program had not posed and did not now pose a "threat to the peace in the region" – the Security Council should have removed some or all of the sanctions previously imposed.

But, President Clinton declared he would never allow sanctions to be lifted, despite the IAEA report that Iraq was in total compliance with its Safeguards Agreement, so long as Saddam Hussein was in power...

Another Nail in the NPT Coffin - by Gordon Prather

Related:
Nuclear program of Iran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


From the UN:

The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. A total of 187 parties have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treaty's significance.
Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

The majority of countries have respected this treaty. Many countries like Canada could make nukes but choose otherwise.

The NPT is important and obviously it has problems.

 

[L Gilbert]

As Mr. Wolf and I previously stated ......

Good luck with North Korea, for instance.

 

[Joses]

Re : Obama’s failure on nuclear disarmament

Barrack Obama’s recent speech on nuclear disarmament hardly made any difference to
North Korea!! As soon after, it launched a nuclear missile programme as a tribute to King Jong II’s late father.

Moderator note: removed link

 

[gopher]

Obama has been in office for 100 days and is a failure?

Bush was in office for 8 years and did nothing about nukes in NK --- what do you call his efforts?

 

[Francis2004]

Obama has been in office for 100 days and is a failure?

Bush was in office for 8 years and did nothing about nukes in NK --- what do you call his efforts?

Junior...