In a few days, President Barack Obama is scheduled to travel to the Czech Republic to sign a very significant treaty. He will be joined there by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and together they will renew a long expired treaty known as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
When it comes into effect, the treaty will cut down the number of deployed strategic warheads down to 1,550 from 2,200 and launchers down to 800 from 1,600 on both sides. Although the nuclear weapons that remain will still be able to cause immense amounts of damage, the treaty will give hope to those who believe that the world can one day be free of such destruction.
One of those people happens to be President Obama. “We must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free of (nuclear) fear in the 21st century”, he said last year in a speech delivered to a 30,000 strong audience in central Prague. The signing of the new treaty in the same location is therefore very symbolic.
However, there is a flipside to the treaty. The reduction in the numbers of weapons and launchers is by no means a reduction in the physical numbers of nuclear weapons. In fact, it is just a method of counting them “differently”. Every single nuclear weapon in existence possessed by the two countries will remain. Also, while the treaty regulates deployed strategic warheads, it does not say anything about warheads in general or the creation of new warheads.
Nevertheless, the treaty is not absolutely toothless. It does provide a way for the people of both nations to hold their governments accountable for the weapons in their possession. Therein lies the first step to a new start for the world.