Issue Brief on “Donald Trump and US Nuclear Security Agenda”

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The Obama administration had successfully launched nuclear security summits (NSS) after the popular address of President Obama in Prague in April 2009. It was his speech in Prague that helped him to win Nobel laurels.[1] More than fifty head of the states met at the subsequent NSS meeting in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. The focussed agenda of these summits was to curb the menace of nuclear or radiological terrorism by non-state actors. The idea of nuclear security was appreciated by global leadership and they participated in all these summits with full enthusiasm.

In response to the Obama’s call “not simply to talk, but to act,” global leaders agreed to secure or destroy hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons-grade nuclear fuel by 2014 to avoid the dangers of nuclear terrorism and proliferation.[2] In response, the 2010 summit yielded tangible outcomes such as Ukraine announced to get rid of all its Soviet-era highly enriched uranium, and five other countries stated to convert their research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium.[3]  The NSS  process has contributed significantly to  the global nuclear  security  agenda,  raising  attention of the threats and catalyzing several substantial actions and dedications by participating states to strengthen nuclear security.

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