| September 22, 2009 |  |
Letter urges Obama, Hatoyama to Change Nuclear Policy
WASHINGTON (September 22, 2009) — Thirteen U.S. security experts today released an open letter to President Obama and newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama asking them to support changes in U.S. nuclear weapons policy while reaffirming the U.S.-Japanese alliance. The two leaders will be in New York to attend a session on nuclear proliferation issues at the United Nations and are planning to meet for the first time tomorrow.
The signatories on the letter include Ambassador George Bunn, former U.S. ambassador to the International Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; Morton Halperin, former director of policy planning staff at the State Department; and Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In particular, the letter calls on the leaders to support a U.S. policy declaring that the only purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter, and if necessary respond to, the use of nuclear weapons by other countries. The letter urges President Obama to become more closely involved in the nuclear policy review his administration is currently conducting, called the Nuclear Posture Review, and to make such a declaration official U.S. nuclear policy.
Such a policy is consistent with President Obama's statement in Prague earlier this year that he will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy, and urge other countries to do the same.
This policy is also supported by public statements by Prime Minister Hatoyama and Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. If the United States adopts this policy, Japan could continue to rely on the U.S. security umbrella. But this new U.S. policy would be more consistent with Japan's own position on nuclear weapons and better reflect Japanese public opinion.
"Such a change in U.S. policy will also strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—a goal of both nations—by reinforcing the negative security assurances the nuclear weapons states have made not to use nuclear weapons against states without nuclear weapons," the letter states. "It will also reduce the incentive for more countries to acquire nuclear weapons."
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