A new lease on life for nuclear disarmament?

There are signs that US President Barack Obama is serious about reinvigorating nuclear
disarmament efforts and in pursuing international cooperation on non-proliferation with
greater urgency than his predecessor. Not least, he is negotiating with Russia on a possible
successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between Russia and the USA.

At the same time, all five nuclear weapon states are either deploying or planning to deploy new nuclear weapons systems. Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions have reached alarming new levels. And countries continue to produce new stocks of fissile materials—highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium—that could be used in nuclear weapons, even as significant amounts of these materials remain unsecured around the world.

Did Obama's 5 April speech in Prague mark a major change in the international nuclear agenda? Do the new arms control negotiations signal a turning point in US–Russian relations? And how relevant are treaties and the other traditional tools of disarmament and non-proliferation in the context of modern weapons, burgeoning illicit trade, emerging threats and contemporary geopolitics? Are there any workable alternatives?

In the Yearbook

Chapter 8. World nuclear forces

Chapter 9. Nuclear arms control and non-proliferation

Appendix 8A. Global stocks of fissile materials