Madeleine Albright initiates anti-nuke proposal

by Jay McDonough

Nice try Madame Secretary, but this is worthless.  Former Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright, along with 14 former foreign ministers
have drafted a proposal they believe will minimize the risks of nuclear
weapons development.

First, here's the proposal:

We,
former foreign ministers from 14 countries, recognize that the
proliferation of nuclear weapons represents a major threat to
international peace and security. The stakes have changed since many of
us were in government at the end of the Cold War. The technology to
build a bomb has spread, and the threat of a nuclear weapon getting
into the hands of terrorists is real.

In
recent years, there have been a number of strong proposals for dealing
with the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Piecing together the many
existing proposals, we support the implementation of the following
steps, with the immediate goal of global arms reduction and a long-term
goal of a world free of nuclear weapons:

Nuclear Disarmament
�
We urge the United States and the Russian Federation to negotiate a new
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and to demonstrate leadership by
working together toward a reduction in the number of strategic nuclear
warheads deployed by each country to 1,000.
�
We urge the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
and to intensify efforts toward its early entry into universal
adoption. We strongly support the early commencement of negotiations on
a verifiable Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.
�
In addition to these steps by the United States and the Russian
Federation, we strongly encourage multilateral nuclear disarmament.

Nonproliferation
�
We must work together to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty and welcome a Global Summit on Nuclear Security within the next
year.
�
We must continue to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program
and to encourage Iran to refrain from further nuclear ambitions,
reminding leaders that Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty states that countries must work toward eliminating their nuclear
weapons. We must push all nuclear powers, declared or undeclared, to
disarm and not condone any new nuclear countries.
�
We must collectively, in close cooperation with the International
Atomic Energy Agency, pursue a new framework for civil nuclear
cooperation, including, for example, an international fuel bank.
�
To ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon, the
international community must work together to redouble efforts to
strengthen security of all vulnerable nuclear material around the world.
�
The international community must increase efforts to break up black
markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial
tools to disrupt this dangerous trade.

Right to use nuclear energy
� We should consider the use of peaceful nuclear energy programs as one of the ways to combat climate change.

We
realize that, given this complex agenda, in order to achieve the steps
outlined above it is important for our countries to train and support
the next generation of nuclear energy and arms control experts and
negotiators who are not only good diplomats, but also knowledgeable
about the newest scientific research.

Signed,
Madeleine Albright � United States        Halld�sgr�son � Iceland
Lloyd Axworthy � Canada                      Lamberto Dini � Italy
Jan Eliasson � Sweden                           Rosario Green � Mexico
Igor Ivanov � Russia                               J�s Martonyi � Hungary
Donald C. McKinnon � New Zealand        Niels Helveg Petersen � Denmark
Lydie Polfer � Luxembourg                     Malcolm Rifkind � United Kingdom
Jozias van Aartsen � The Netherlands     Hubert V�ine � France

If
good intentions were all that's required to get something done, this
proposal may have been effective.  But right from the get go, check out
the signers.  The countries with known nuclear weapons include the
U.S., Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel,
and North Korea.  The list of nations that had or have possession of
nuclear weapons include South Africa, Turkey, Greece, Germany and
Belarus.  Brazil, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia are rumored to have had
or are currently considering nuclear weapons programs.

It's
terrific that foreign ministers from Luxembourg, Mexico and Iceland
signed the proposal, but it would have been far more significant had
foreign ministers from China, Pakistan, Israel and India endorsed the
letter.

It's pretty obvious this proposal is directed to North
Korea and Iran.  Now, North Korea is a different problem altogether,
but the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran had
discontinued nuclear weapons research in 2003 and Iran has steadfastly
maintained it is developing only a nuclear energy capability.  The
proposals inclusion of a caveat allowing the "right to use nuclear
energy" just muddies the water with respect to Iran.