President Obama's decision to chair a special session of the UN Security Council focused on nuclear disarmament is an historic step, but you wouldn't know it from reading and watching some of the media coverage that has come out in advance of this Thursday's meeting. The frame for much of the coverage on this and other key issues has been what will he accomplish this week? But that's the wrong question. The question is how will what happens this week set the stage for what needs to happen in the months and years to come. There will be no Mideast peace deal this week, nor will Iran magically agree to drop its nuclear program. But the fact that the President of the United States has chosen to put his power and prestige on the line to seek concrete steps to rid the world of nuclear weapons will yield benefits that will extend far beyond this week.

While heavy on the "whereas's," the draft resolution that the United States will be bringing to the Security Council, if passed, would also commit the world's major nuclear powers to take some critical steps (note that the version linked to here has since been revised, but the key points remain). The thrust of the resolution includes the following: working towards a ban on all nuclear weapons tests; ending the production of nuclear bomb-making materials; strengthening inspections to ensure that no one cheats on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); agreeing to make quick, deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals of the "Big Five" (the U.S., Russia, China, France, and the UK) as a step towards their commitment to get rid of all of them; and cooperating to press countries that are either violating or failing to participate in existing treaties to end their nuclear programs. Getting the world's major powers to endorse this agenda will make it that much easier to strengthen and extend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty when it comes up for review next May. This is a breath of fresh air after eight years of the Bush administration, when engagement with the UN on disarmament matters was not even considered seriously, much less followed through on.

More could be said about how and why we need to get rid of these weapons of mass annihilation. But the point is that for the first time in decades the U.S. has a president who is committed to doing the right thing on the nuclear issue. He deserves our support, even if it takes more than a week to see real progress.