ABSTRACT President Obama has built a lasting legacy by reducing the number of nuclear weapons and their role in U.S. policy—laying a foundation for further reductions and making progress in securing fissile materials. This article reviews that legacy and provides an outline for bolder action in a possible second term. In such a term, Obama would also have an historic opportunity to do more to fulfill his Prague vision and enhance our security by tossing out the remaining cold war-era policies. He could achieve these goals by pursuing an additional round of arms reductions with Russia, securing Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, pulling tactical nuclear weapons out of Europe, and continuing to contain the nuclear weapons ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Were President Obama to achieve substantial progress on this agenda, it would be one of the most substantial and long-standing accomplishments of his presidency.

The authors analyze what the agenda is and explain why addressing it at home and abroad will be the most important challenge that faces the next president of the United States. It is challenging because it identifies actions that ought to be taken and policies that should be reversed. The new president can meet the challenge if he becomes the great persuader, not solely the great enforcer. The payoff, the analysis concludes, will be mutually beneficial. Not only did the U.S. decision to supply vast amounts of humanitarian aid to the victims of the tsunami disaster that occurred during the Bush administration's first term save the lives of people living in the path of destruction and improve the world's opinion of the United States, but it cost far less than the United States spends in Iraq in one day. Moreover, addressing the Prosperity Agenda will provide a base of supportive states on which the president can rely to join the United States in fighting the most serious threats that the world faces-terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, it is recommended that the president take the lead in signing a compact between the haves and the have-nots that was proposed by the UN secretary general at the turn of the century. Implementing that compact will facilitate the Prosperity Agenda.

In seeking to answer the two questions that she extrapolated from her analysis of the U.S. approach to the UN—Is the shift from UN bashing on the part of the Bush administration real? Is the UN up to the job?—the author provides a comprehensive analysis of the reforms associated with the 2005 World Summit.

1. By taking the visionary steps of consulting the public about the role of the security sector and placing human security and development at the center of its national security framework, South Africa went beyond mere reform to transform the security sector. These steps helped repair the security sector's legitimacy and credibility with the country's people.