Sunday, June 10, 2007

Barack Obama quotes on Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation

The most recent issue of Foreign Affairs had articles by both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney laying out their foreign policy perspectives. I was planning to read these articles and provide nonproliferation quote highlights, but our friend Terri Lodge over at Arms Control Advocacy Collaborative beat me to it for the Obama article. She sent me the following quotes outlining Obama's nonproliferation plans, as well as issues with Iran and North Korea:

America must lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites within four years... This will require the active
cooperation of Russia... We must also work with Russia to update and scale back our dangerously outdated Cold War nuclear postures and de-emphasize the role of nuclear weapons. America must not rush to produce a new generation of nuclear warheads. And we should take advantage of recent technological advances to build bipartisan consensus behind ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty... I will work to
negotiate a verifiable global ban on the production of new nuclear weapons material.

[W]e should not hesitate to talk directly to Iran.

[W]e must develop a strong international coalition to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program... I will not take the military option off the table.
Personally, I was hoping for more details. Unfortunately, important nuclear weapons issues are likely going to continue to be crowded out by the Iraq debate through November 2008.

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