Nonproliferation a Major Issue in 2008, Experts Say

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — A panel of nuclear nonproliferation experts said Friday that stopping the spread of nuclear technology could emerge as a significant issue in next year’s U.S. presidential election (see GSN, Jan. 19).

“The first candidate who takes this up is going to enjoy a significant boost in popularity,” Joseph Cirincione, a national security expert with the Center for American Progress, said at a forum hosted by the Arms Control Association.  “I believe this is a winning issue.”

“The first candidate that says that he or she will make it a priority to eliminate the possibility of nuclear terrorism in their first four years in office will immediately jump to the front of public attention on this issue,” Cirincione said.

In a 2004 presidential debate, both President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry (Mass.) declared nuclear proliferation as the paramount threat to the United States (see GSN, Oct. 1, 2004).

A recent Wall Street Journal commentary from a former U.S. senator, two former secretaries of state and a former defense secretary was written with an eye toward the next election, said Steve Andreasen, defense policy and arms control director at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration (see GSN, Jan. 4).

The piece, published in early January, urged the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons and was timed both as a call to action to the current administration and a suggestion to candidates in 2008, said Andreasen, who was one of 17 additional signatories to the essay.

“All of the signatories thought it essential to underscore the urgent need for U.S. leadership for making progress on nuclear issues and to make the case for moving the issue of nuclear weapons once again to the policy front burner,” he said.

Andreasen and fellow panelist Matthew Bunn, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Project on Managing the Atom, called for strong leadership within the White House on nuclear issues.  While Bunn called for establishing a senior nuclear policy coordinator, Andreasen said that in his experience leadership regarding nuclear nonproliferation must come from the president.

“It’s a doable mission,” Cirincione said of eliminating the possibility of nuclear terrorism.  “It’s a necessary mission and we have the resources to do it, we just lack the political will to do so.”

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