In the Asialink Essays series, leading commentators explore key issues in Australia’s engagement with Asia.

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NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: Asia and Australia at the centre
Ron Huisken, Senior Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, The Australian National University.

The Australia-Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is one manifestation of a genuine but still modest movement to have another crack at knocking nuclear weapons off their pedestal. In Prague on 5 April 2009, Barack Obama gave this enterprise a critical boost, committing the United States unambiguously to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. Part of the background noise to Obama’s speech was North Korea’s countdown to a test of its long-range missile, thinly disguised as a satellite launch to avoid trouble with the UN Security Council. North Korea is a quantitatively trivial part of the nuclear puzzle, but the experience with them offers a clue to Obama’s cautious observation that nuclear disarmament may not happen in his lifetime.

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ABOUT ASIALINK

Asialink is Australia’s leading centre for the promotion of public understanding of the countries of Asia and of Australia’s role in the region.

Asialink is a department of the University of Melbourne and an initiative of the Myer Foundation.

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ABOUT THE ASIALINK ESSAYS SERIES

Australia’s international relations are increasingly located in Asia rather than the rest of the World. What are the challenges ahead? What are the opportunities for business, for greater cultural exchange, for Australia’s role in the region?

Asialink is Australia’s leading centre for the promotion of public understanding of the countries of Asia and of Australia’s role in the region. Asialink is a department of the University of Melbourne and an initiative of the Myer Foundation.

http:www./asialink.unimelb.edu.au