Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory



April 28, 2016

Eight years after President Obama's April 2009 Prague Speech affirmed America's commitment "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons", the global nuclear landscape confronting the next American president in 2017 will be very different – and much more challenging and dangerous. The new president will need to address many specific questions related to U.S. nuclear policy and posture. Coursing throughout many of those questions is a further question: Whether the United States should discard the Prague vision of global zero? Dr. Dunn's talk will argue that despite the sobering global nuclear landscape, the next U.S. president should not simply "walk away" from articulating and pursuing a U.S. agenda for nuclear disarmament diplomacy. At the same time, that agenda needs to be redefined in light of today’s nuclear challenges and dangers as well as the obstacles to global zero. As one part of a more comprehensive approach, a redefined agenda should be based on a strategy of "looking long and throwing short". That is, it should set out a clear and well-defined U.S. "look long" vision, specifically of a world of 2045 in which nuclear weapons have been eliminated strategically as means of statecraft but not physically abolished. In pursuit of that vision, a new administration should "throw short." That is, it should pursue practical and effective short-term actions both to meet the challenges and risks of today’s nuclear landscape and to strengthen or begin to put in place the building blocks necessary to realize that look long vision.


Redefining the U.S. Agenda for Nuclear Disarmament

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) sponsored this seminar entitled "Redefining the U.S. Agenda for Nuclear Disarmament " on April 28, 2016, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The seminar was presented by Lewis A. Dunn.

LLNL-VIDEO-692659