Obameter

Tracking Obama's promises

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will seek deep, verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons — whether deployed or non-deployed, whether strategic or non-strategic — and work with other nuclear powers to reduce global stockpiles dramatically by the end of an Obama presidency."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work to secure Russia's agreement to extend essential monitoring and verification provisions of the START I Treaty before it expires in December 2009."

Obama will "immediately stand down all nuclear forces to be reduced under the Moscow Treaty and urge Russia to do the same."

"The United States has maintained a moratorium on testing since 1992. It signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, but it has not been ratified yet. Since the U.S. Senate last considered the treaty in 1999, significant progress has been made in our verification capability to detect nuclear explosions, even at extremely low yields, and to ensure confidence in the reliability of our nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work with our allies and other countries to achieve a successful outcome in 2010 that strengthens the NPT. The initiatives Barack Obama and Joe Biden pledge to undertake to enhance nuclear security and further U.S. commitments under the treaty will contribute greatly to that effort."

Obama "will appoint a deputy national security advisor to be in charge of coordinating all U.S. programs aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism and weapons proliferation. This person will work closely with him, the national security adviser, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and senior officials of the relevant cabinet departments, and will have budgetary oversight over all programs related to nuclear security."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the U.S. government's bioforensics program for tracking the source of any biological weapon so that the U.S. will be able to rapidly identify any adversary who uses a biological weapon and respond surely and swiftly."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will declare the cyber infrastructure a strategic asset, vital to national security and the global economy, and develop and deploy systems to protect it. ... Barack Obama and Joe Biden will establish the position of national cyber advisor who will report directly to the president and will be responsible for coordinating federal agency efforts and development of national cyber policy."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that his administration develops a Cyber Security Strategy that ensures that we have the ability to identify our attackers and a plan for how to respond that will be measured but effective."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also initiate a grant and training program to provide federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies the tools they need to detect and prosecute cyber crime."

"The federal government must partner with industry and our citizens to secure personal data stored on government and private systems. An Obama administration will institute a common standard for securing such data across industries."

"California and other states have laws requiring a company that may have disclosed a resident's personal information without authorization to inform the victim of the disclosure. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that all Americans deserve the same right to know and will push for comparable federal legislation."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden would work with key European allies to persuade the European Union as a whole to end its practice of extending large-scale credit guarantees to Iran."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will lead a diplomatic effort to bring together Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish leaders and negotiate a comprehensive agreement that deals with the PKK threat, guarantees Turkey's territorial integrity, and facilitates badly needed Turkish investment in and trade with the Kurds of northern Iraq. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support the promotion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey and support its efforts to join the European Union."

"As president, Barack Obama will show U.S. leadership in seeking to negotiate a political settlement on Cyprus. He believes strongly that Cyprus should remain a single, sovereign country in which each of the two communities on the island is able to exercise substantial political authority within a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will lead a multilateral effort to address the issue of 'odious debt' by investigating ways in which 'loan sanctions' might be employed to create disincentives for private creditors to lend money to repressive, authoritarian regimes."

"In order to increase the incomes of subsistence producers, decrease the pressure on shrinking arable lands, and minimize the vulnerability of commodity exports to global price shocks, an Obama administration will launch the AVTA Initiative. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are committed to spurring research and innovation aimed at bringing about a Green Revolution for Africa, by partnering with land grant institutions, private philanthropies and business to support agricultural processing through increased investment in research and development for improved seeds, irrigation methods, and affordable and safe fertilizers."

Barack Obama and Joe Biden "will work for the release of jailed scholars, activists, and opposition party leaders such as Ayman Nour in Egypt."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that we should channel most support for democratic activists living under the most repressive regimes through independent institutions, committed to supporting democrats but free from perceptions of questionable or ulterior motives. They will significantly increase funding for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and other nongovernmental organizations to support these civic activists."

"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will introduce a new Rapid Response Fund – a seed fund that will provide a shot of adrenaline to young democracies and post-conflict societies, through foreign aid, debt relief, technical assistance and investment packages that show the people of newly hopeful countries that democracy and peace deliver, and the United States stands by them."