Yesterday on PBS Newshour, Judy Woodruff interviewed Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund and Stephen Rademaker, former Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, on the upcoming 2012 nuclear summit in South Korea and the issues facing the United States.

Both agreed that the United Sates had too many nuclear weapons but Mr. Rademaker, with Mr. Cirincione disagreeing, brought up the additional point that negotiations won’t work if Russia isn’t interested in making cuts in their strategic weapons:

“I think the bigger question is whether Russia believes we have too many nuclear weapons. The Russians have never bought into the notion that the ultimate objective is a nuclear-free world. And so while President Obama may feel like the United States could have fewer weapons, if the Russians don’t share that objective, I think it would be very dangerous to go down the road of unilateral reductions, with the Russians staying where they are.”

However, both Mr. Cirincione and Mr. Rademaker agreed that the reduction of tactical nuclear warheads should be one of the Administration’s top priorities during this summit. Mr. Cirincione believes that a deal that trades cutting the United States strategic nuclear missile force for a cut in the Russian’s tactical nuclear weapons force would be prudent and recommended:

“We’re interested in cutting their tactical nuclear weapons. They’re interested in cutting our big reserve of strategic weapons. It’s a made-for negotiations. It’s let’s make a deal here. We can cut them and so satisfy each side’s security needs.”

Finally, both agreed that the upcoming North Korean satellite launch was an unsettling and intolerable move on the part of the North Koreans.  Mr. Cirincione believes that the agreement reached with North Korea on food aid will be abrogated if this launch occurs. And Mr. Rademaker stated that this was the typical North Korean pattern of instigation and renegotiation.

Both make interesting points on nuclear weapons and U.S. national security. Watch the full video here:

Watch Can U.S., Russia Reduce Their Nuclear Arsenals? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

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