Ban Ki-Moon's Speech at Riverside Church NPT Conference

I know how much energy it takes to speak out, to protest, to carry the banner of this most noble human aspiration - world peace. Let me begin by saying how humbling it is to speak to you in this famous place, Riverside Church.

(full article)

A New Ground Zero

A few weeks ago, traveling in Kazakhstan, I had the sobering experience of standing at Ground Zero. This was the notorious test site at Semipalatinsk, where the Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear weapons between 1947 and 1989.

(full article)

Reaching Zero

What is the purpose, if any, of the nuclear bomb, that brooding presence that has shadowed all human life for sixty-five years? The question has haunted the nuclear age. It may be that no satisfactory answer has ever been given.

(full article)

U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan
by Elisabeth Bumiller and Mark Landler
The New York Times, November 11, 2009

" WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday."

(full article)

SHARED INTERESTS DEFINE OBAMA'S WORLD
In engaging adversaries, the President sometimes unsettles allies

"... President Obama is applying the same tools to international diplomacy that he once used as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side, constructing appeals to shared interests and attempting to bring the government's conduct in line with its ideals.

Obama's approach to the world as a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interest, has elevated America's standing abroad and won him the Nobel Peace Prize. But on the farthest-reaching U.S. foreign policy challenges, he is struggling to translate his own popularity into American influence, even with allies that have celebrated his break from the Bush administration's emphasis on military strength, unilateral action and personal chemistry ..."

(full article)

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL SUMMIT ON NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

"... Today, the Security Council endorsed a global effort to lock down all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years. The United States will host a summit next April to advance this goal and help all nations achieve it. This resolution will also help strengthen the institutions and initiatives that combat the smuggling, financing, and theft of proliferation-related materials. It calls on all states to freeze any financial assets that are being used for proliferation. And it calls for stronger safeguards to reduce the likelihood that peaceful nuclear weapons programs can be diverted to a weapons program ..."

(full article)

OBAMA'S YOUTHFUL IDEALS SHAPED THE LONG ARC OF HIS NUCLEAR-FREE VISION

In the depths of the cold war, in 1983, a senior at Columbia University wrote in a campus newsmagazine, Sundial, about the vision of "a nuclear free world." He railed against discussions of "first- versus second-strike capabilities" that "suit the military-industrial interests" with their "billion-dollar erector sets," and agitated for the elimination of global arsenals holding tens of thousands of deadly warheads.

(full article)

U.S. AND RUSSIA SEEK MORE EXTENSIVE WEAPONS CUTS