Massive Ordnance Problem: The Conventional Arms Control Challenge

Massive ordnance penetrator. Sounds powerful, right? This bomb is also known by its initials: MOP.

Obama: Visit Hiroshima

President Obama has talked a lot about ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He won a Nobel Peace prize largely on the strength of those words. Now, he needs to translate words into actions and vindicate the Nobel committee's decision. When he goes to Japan this month, the president should make an unprecedented visit to Hiroshima.

Can Talks with Iran Lead to Obama's 'World without Nuclear Weapons'?

In one key conflict area-Iran-President Barack Obama appears to be keeping, at least for the moment, his campaign commitment to engage rather than threaten, to use diplomacy rather than force.
As talks with Iran go forward, hope continues to rise for serious diplomacy that could, just maybe, lead us a few steps closer to the "world without nuclear weapons" that Obama has called for.

Hiroshima Beckons Obama

For the past 64 years the name "Hiroshima" has conjured a nightmare vision for all humanity: the unthinkable specter of instantaneous atomic annihilation. Only by personally visiting Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities that have experienced atomic bombing, can one begin to grasp the threat posed by the world's present arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Just one bomb, dubbed "Little Boy," devastated Hiroshima in a split second.

Torture and the Bomb

When the United States adopted torture as a weapon in its "war on terror," it was a turn to methods that shock the conscience, and when discovered, officials and their media surrogates went to great lengths to gain public acquiescence for their policies. It was not the first time the country betrayed its highest ideals, nor the first time U.S. citizens were led to deny that any betrayal had occurred. The United States had gone down the same road in 1945, when it used nuclear weapons to destroy two Japanese cities.

Barack and Alyn

Since President Obama was named this year's Nobel Peace Laureate, there's been a fruitful debate about the degree to which the award was deserved or strategically useful. It's worth noting that the president's strong support for the cause of nuclear disarmament was a key reason he got the nod from Oslo. This support has not only come in speeches, but also in a very interesting U.N. Security Council resolution that he cared enough about to deliver to the council personally and even chair the session in which it was adopted, an unprecedented move for a world leader.

Premature Peace Prize or Call to Action?

As we demonstrated at the White House last Monday calling for an end to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, we could hardly have imagined President Barack Obama would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize four days later.

While the award came as a surprise, it is somewhat understandable. We have met and conversed with peace activists from around the world over the last year, and we've observed a palpable, nearly desperate, universal hunger (obviously shared by the Nobel Committee) for a more peaceful, less militaristic U.S. foreign policy.

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Middle Eastern-Style

And you thought "don't ask, don't tell" was a U.S. law on gays in the military that Barack Obama has promised to change. As it turns out, the same phrase plays quite a different role in the Middle East, where Obama seems to have no intention of changing it at all.