http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/03/26/commentary/nuclear-agenda-out-of-play/#.UVGO0zvg0do

Nuclear agenda out of play
by Ramesh Thakur
Mar 26, 2013

CANBERRA – On April 5, 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama spoke in Prague’s historic Hradcany Square, he was addressing a crowd of Czechs, but his audience was global. There was palpable excitement as the young new president outlined a vision of a world freed, at last, of the threat of nuclear weapons.

Hopes were raised for a serious movement toward nuclear disarmament, which in turn would drive a reinvigorated commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security.

There were additional grounds for optimism over the following months: Russia and the U.S. resumed negotiations on cutting their nuclear stockpiles; the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) — cosponsored by the Australian and Japanese governments — outlined a comprehensive but sharply practical agenda for further progress on the full nuclear weapons agenda in 2009; Washington hosted a successful nuclear security summit in April 2010; and in May the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference came to some critical agreements that had eluded its failed predecessor five years earlier.

But by the end of 2012, much of this sense of optimism had evaporated. “Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play” helps to explain why. The first in a proposed series, the report assesses the progress as of yearend 2012 made on the more than 200 commitments and recommendations of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, the 2010 and 2012 Nuclear Security Summits, and the 2009 ICNND report.

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Ramesh Thakur, a professor at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, is director of the Center for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. The report “Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play” may be downloaded from http://cnnd.anu.edu.au