Research

President Obama is touting today the signing of the renewed START treaty with Russia as an important milestone for “nuclear security and nonproliferation, and for U.S.-Russia relations” and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hailed the occasion as “historic.”  However, a closer look at the treaty reveals that this is not the case. 

This morning on MSNBC, NYU Russian Studies Professor Stephen Cohen said anyone who considered the agreement historic must be suffering from “historical amnesia” as this treaty “doesn’t amount to much.”  He also pointed out the “ticking time bomb” within the treaty, which is the disagreement over the language concerning missile defense systems which essentially allows Russia to veto any expansion of our missile defense shield.  In fact, it is very hard to see what benefits the United States will derive from this treaty. 

In sharp contrast, President Bush’s “landmark” 123 Nuclear Agreement with India represented a forward looking approach designed to ally the United States to a growing and influential democratic power in a fiercely contested region of the world. The Washington Post editorial board explains.

The administration is betting that the benefits to the United States and the world of a "strategic partnership" with India outweigh the risks… There are good reasons to make the bet. India is a booming democracy of more than 1 billion people, clearly destined to play a growing role on the world stage. It can help the United States as a trading partner and as a strategic counterweight to China and Islamic extremists. If India uses more nuclear energy, it will emit less greenhouse gas. Perhaps most important, India has developed its own nuclear arsenal without selling materials or know-how to other potentially dangerous states.

Apparently such forward thinking escaped the Obama administration, as the administration continues to ignore serious 21^st century threats of Iran and North Korea, while reversing important progress made by the Bush administration with our natural democratic ally India.