Globalizing Nuclear Zero: Is a World without Nuclear Weapons Really Attainable? GÖTZ NEUNECK Introduction After years in the doldrums, there is once more wind in the sails of nu­clear arms control. Important aims and proposals of the arms control community, which in recent decades have been worked out by non­governmental organizations, think tanks, and commissions(Palme 1982, Canberra 1996 and the Blix Commission 2006), are once again an inte­gral part of world politics. During the eight years of the George W. Bush administration the arms control and disarmament process, which was launched after the Cold War ended, was systematically neutered, en­feebled, and reversed. A un commission warned in 2004 that»we are approaching a point at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation«( un 2004). us President Obama, in his Prague speech of April 5, 2009, de­clared – to widespread astonishment – that America was committed»to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons«(Obama 2009). He laid particular emphasis on the usa ’s great moral responsibil­ity:»As a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.« Con­crete proposals were pledged. In June 2009, President Obama’s Repub­lican opponent for the us presidency, John McCain, recalled Ronald Reagan’s dream of a world free of nuclear weapons and he too demanded a dramatic reduction of nuclear arsenals across the world. Strategic dia­log with the Russian Federation is once more under way and on Septem­ber 24, President Obama will deliver a speech at the United Nations and chair the Security Council summit on nuclear non-proliferation. It now remains to be seen whether the principles and aims of arms control, dis­armament, and conflict prevention can be converted into concrete steps towards a world which is more secure, more just, and more peaceful. Beyond question, the challenges of the twenty-first century are quite 46 Neuneck, Globalizing Nuclear Zero ipg 4/2009