July 1, 2009

Security Index

James Goodby

Reports/Studies

A conference at the Hoover Institution in 2006, convened by George Shultz and Sidney Drell on the 20th anniversary of Reykjavik, considered what it would take to rekindle the vision shared by Reagan and Gorbachev. The participants agreed that a world without nuclear weapons was not only a goal worth pursuing, in itself, but would also invigorate efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons…At the second conference at the Hoover Institution one year later, this time in cooperation with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons was reaffirmed, and specific steps toward that end were elaborated in considerable detail… central to the case for revisiting the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons as an operationally meaningful goal... In contrast to the world reaction in 1986, which was highly skeptical, the reaction in 2006 and thereafter has been remarkably positive.

July 1, 2009

Security Index

Edward Ifft

Reports/Studies

The arrival of the Obama administration in the United States, along with several aspects of the world situation, indicates that we are about to see a revitalization of the arms control process in general, and the U.S. Russian arms control process in particular. The relevant circumstances of the world situation are familiar to us all–the expiration of the START Treaty next December, the approaching NPT Review Conference next year, the urgent need to resolve the problems created by the nuclear activities of Iran and North Korea, the failure of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva to make any progress whatsoever for almost 13 years and the growing realization (especially in the U.S.A, U.K. and elsewhere, and, I hope that includes Russia) that a continuation of the current situation, in which thousands of nuclear weapons are deployed, with thousands more in reserve, is both unnecessary and dangerous.

July 1, 2009

Security Index

George Perkovich

Reports/Studies

In the West today, and perhaps in Russia, leading circles believe that nuclear deterrence is what prevented the U.S. and the Soviet Union from fighting directly during the Cold War. Many assume that these weapons will continue to deter without fail. Both ideas deserve to be questioned.

June 23, 2009

SAIC

NTI Co-Chairman Sam Nunn

Speech/Testimony

Two and a half years ago, George Shultz, Bill Perry, Henry Kissinger and I stirred the pot with an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal entitled “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons.”  Prior to that, an SAIC report prepared for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in 2006 had a significant effect on my thinking and confirmed my own assessment based on discussions around the globe.

June 15, 2009

American Nuclear Society

Sam Nunn

Speech/Testimony

As the world’s need for energy rises, as the concern about our climate increases, and as the benefits of nuclear science expand, nuclear energy and the nuclear industry are in a long-overdue revival.