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Steve Clemons <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons>

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Posted: April 12, 2010 06:55 PM
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Biden Courts the Non-Aligned on
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[image: Thumbnail image for joe biden vp 2010.jpg]

Vice President Joe
Biden<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-biden>
has
been quietly carrying the water on tomorrow's Nuclear Summit since Barack
Obama got the keys to the White House.

The challenge of convincing major global stakeholders and other key
non-aligned nations to work towards tighter nuclear materials controls and
to cooperative arrangements to shut down nuclear trafficking is not a sexy
topic except for those who think and breathe WMD stuff all the time.

However, after the release of the revised Nuclear Posture Review by the
White House, the signing of a new US-Russia START Treaty, the convening of
nations this week at a Nuclear Summit -- all leading to restored American
engagement in a revitalized Non-Proliferation Treaty review process -- the
media and many Americans are now taking stock of the considerable work that
has been done behind the scenes.

And today, Vice President Biden may have helped push a new "global social
contract" on global security and safety a bit further by hosting personally
at his private residence a unique lunch with the presidents, prime
ministers, and foreign ministers of twelve significant non-aligned nations.

Countries represented included Algeria, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam. US
Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice participated as did Biden
National Security Adviser Antony Blinken.

The meeting today mostly focused on the NPT review conference to take place
in May. Biden made the claim that this was a crucial moment and that global
stakeholders will either reinvigorate the NPT or see it further unravel as
it started to do in 2005 when Dick Cheney and John Bolton's acolytes were
running the show.

From early reports, there was significant receptivity among the delegations
represented -- even when it came to some tough talk discussion about
strengthening verification and consequences for violations. One attendee
reported to me that there was "a very positive and constructive atmosphere."

This is significant -- because some of the nations represented are among
those that might be driven to either begin building their own fissile
material production capacity, or to acquire WMDs of their own if they don't
see a major correction to the eroding global commitment to
non-proliferation.

The *quid pro quo* for support of these key non-aligned nations is not only
general security for the global commons, but greater cooperation and more
dependable protocols in sharing nuclear technology used for peaceful
purposes.

As I write tomorrow in a lead op-ed for *Politico*, the combined efforts of
the President and Vice President, the National Security Adviser, the
Secretaries of Defense and State -- standouts like Obama national security
confidante and NSC chief of staff Denis McDonough, OSD's Jim Miller,
National Security Council Director for Defense Policy Barry Pavel, Under
Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher, State Department Deputy Policy Planning
Director Derek Chollet -- also the NSC's Gary Samore and Rexon Ryu -- really
came together in a way that should be seriously modeled and studied to bring
more strategic depth and success to other areas of the national security
portfolio that are flagging. Israel/Palestine is a major case in point.

Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, according to one source, has
worked at an "insane" rate to try and pull off this package of nuclear deals
and posture statements. A source reports that he facilitated more than 30
Deputies meetings and 12 Principals meetings -- which is huge.

Some think that there is not much in this Summit. I totally disagree. It's
the package, the sequencing, the strategic enmeshment of big states and
smaller ones -- and the absence of national and personal ego that makes this
so important.

This kind of institution building seems to me to be something for more
potentially compelling to an Iran or North Korea than bilateral jabs in
official speeches, sermons, or sanctions.

*-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog,* The
Washington Note<http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/>
. *Clemons can be followed on Twitter* @SCClemons<http://twitter.com/scclemons>

--
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
[email protected]