Follow-up to START II with Russia
▸ US and Russian negotiators are working on a draft that would reduce each country’s arsenals to 1,500 nuclear warheads or less, and as few as 500 missiles.
▸ Democrats and Republicans in Congress have already expressed concern that the White House will go too low and erode the American nuclear deterrent.
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
▸ Obama plans to resubmit the treaty, which would ban all nuclear tests and was defeated by the US Senate in 1999.
▸ Critics say testing by foreign countries cannot be fully monitored and the US must reserve the right to conduct underground tests to ensure that its weapons remain viable.
Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
▸ Negotiations began in May for a treaty to end worldwide production of all materials needed to make a nuclear weapon.
▸ Many specialists question whether it could be fully verified that countries are complying and not secretly developing weapons material.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
▸ It took effect in 1996 and sets guidelines for countries’ use of the world’s oceans, including economic activities, environmental regulations, and protections for maritime resources.
▸The United States has not joined the treaty, and Republicans in Congress and some business leaders say it would restrict the ability to mine the seabed for resources and would create a new bureaucracy.
Climate change treaty
▸ Negotiations are set to resume in Copenhagen in December for a global treaty that sets limits on carbon emissions and that builds so-called Kyoto Protocol, which the United States declined to sign in 1997 and expires in 2012. Obama supports sweeping climate change legislation that passed the House in June.
▸ Republicans and other critics say the climate change legislation would raise energy costs for consumers, and they object to the cap-and-trade system that would limit carbon emissions and allow pollution credits to be bought and sold.
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