Shared responsibilities for nuclear disarmament

Abstract

The Japanese and Austra-lian governments announced the cre-ation of the International Commissionon Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Dis-armament in June 2008. Both SenatorsJohn McCain and Barack Obama explic-itly supported the vision of a world freeof nuclear weapons during the 2008election campaign. In April 2009, at the London Summit, President BarackObama and President Dmitri Medved-ev called for pragmatic U.S. and Rus-sian steps toward nuclear disarmament,and President Obama then dramatical-ly reaf½rmed “clearly and with convic-tion America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world with-out nuclear weapons” in his speech inPrague. There is a simple explanation for thesestatements supporting nuclear disarma-ment: all states that have joined the Nu-clear Non-Proliferation Treaty (