Last weekend's speech by President Barack Obama, embracing the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons, reflects a developing view around the world that the time is ripe to revive what has in the past been considered a utopian dream. We are now a long way from the massive arsenals of the cold war, and the Americans and Russians are about to embark on a new round of talks that could see arsenals reduced to at most 1,500 warheads each and possibly lower. Yet the move towards zero is by no means free of risk. The problem is less the ultimate goal, and whether it could be properly verified, but the transition period, which we have already entered. This new nuclear age involves issues and perils quite different from those of the cold war.
4月5日，美國總統巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)發表講話，提出要消除所有的核武器。這反映出一個觀點正在全世界日益形成，即喚醒過去的烏托邦夢想的時機已經成熟。我們如今已經遠離冷戰時大規模武庫的時代，美國人和俄羅斯人即將開啓新一輪會談，可能會將各自擁有的核武器彈頭數量削減至1500枚，甚至更少。不過將核武器數量削減至零的做法絕不是沒有風險的。問題不在於最終目標及其能否得到準確覈實，而在於我們已經進入的過渡期。這個新核武器時代涉及的問題和危險與冷戰時期截然不同。