What Savvy Leaders Could Do to Move Toward a Nuclear-Free World
(Obama--Are You Listening?)  News Abroad   Addressing a U.N.
Security Council Summit on September 24, 2009, President Barack
Obama observed that the resolution unanimously adopted by the
Security Council earlier that day "enshrines our shared
commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."  But
the enthusiasm for this measure among the representatives of
major nations should not obscure the fact that securing their
commitment to a nuclear-free world was for years an uphill
struggle—one that began, with some political sleight-of-hand, in
a nuclear superpower, the Soviet Union.  Of course, for the
first four decades of the Cold War, the Soviet government had
spoken glibly about abolishing nuclear weapons.  But it was
never serious about this enterprise.  Such talk was meant for
propaganda purposes—to convince people of other nations that the
Soviet Union was a peace-loving nation with their best interests
at heart.  In practical terms,