Nuclear Summit Pushes for Cooperative Security and Sanctions

Earlier this week President Barack Obama hosted the Nuclear Security Summit, attended by delegates and heads of states of 47 nations. Among the primary desires voiced by Obama were for governments to push for the state-driven constraint of nuclear material and for a reinvigorated batch of sanctions intent on veering Iran’s nuclear program decisively away from expansion.

Claiming the existence of a real threat and willingness on the part of “non-state actors” – terrorist groups most prominently – to use nuclear material violently if it were ever acquired, President Obama called for the increased protection of the military and civilian facilities where nuclear stocks worldwide are stored, as well as for the multilateral restraint of violent nuclear development. Canada, Ukraine, and Malaysia said they were committed to reducing their stock. Their gestures, however, are hardly reflective of cooperative efforts at an international level, something that would require several nations to ignore militaristic and political tensions between each other.

The development of peaceful nuclear programs intent on expanding the use of nuclear energy were hardly deemed undesirable during the summit, a move that assuages the concerns of developing nations like India but also complicates the international stance towards Iran’s nuclear program. Its government has claimed the program is peaceful, despite strong doubts on the part of other countries and opposition to its advancement.

An international push for Iranian restraint would demand the cooperation of China. President Obama sought during the summit a commitment, especially on the part of Chinese president Hu Jintao, to enforce measures against Iran that would effectively pressure the country into changing its nuclear policy and aims.