CNS Experts Lay Out Top Issues for the Second Obama Administration

When President Obama re-takes the oath of office in January, a number of other disarmament, nonproliferation and nuclear security issues will require his prompt attention.

In a new issue brief, experts from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies examine eight of the decisions that the second-term Obama administration cannot avoid.  Although only one of the issues – how to deal with Iran's enrichment program – played a role in the campaign, the others also present unique and urgent challenges.

These other issues include whether to hold, postpone, or call off a planned 2012 international conference on a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction; the future of U.S. strategic forces; responses to the potential dual-use dangers represented by rapid technological changes in the life sciences; how to shape the U.S. missile defense architecture; whether or not to attempt Senate approval of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT); the future of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and the Nuclear Security Summit process.

The new issue brief features contributions from Chen Kane, Bryan L. Lee, Miles A. Pomper, Amy E. Smithson, Nikolai Sokov, Leonard S. Spector, Jessica C. Varnum, and Jon B. Wolfsthal.

Read the issue brief.