U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met at the end of this week but did not come to an agreement on reducing Cold War era nuclear arms stocks. They did, however, say that they would continue to work to do so until the new year.

The Al Jazeera headline read, “U.S. and Russia ‘Close’ to Arms Deal.” The Reuters headline for the same story read, “U.S. and Russia fail to clinch nuclear arms deal.” A reminder that journalists can spin a story in either direction they choose- but the point is that the U.S. and Russia are working on a deal about their nuclear arms and they haven’t come to any conclusion. There was some talk that Obama would stop in and sign a deal while he was in Copenhagen working to break the deadlock at that summit- but it turns out making two deals was one too many for Obama. Saving the world from both nuclear arms and climate change

Obama characterized the two Cold War powers as “quite close” to an agreement, but a Russian spokesman said talks would continue into January.

In 1991 the START I pact created the largest cut in nuclear arms in the world up to that point- the two countries have been meeting to try and make another large cut. The START I treaty had set a December 5 deadline for the next agreement on arms cuts to happen- unfortunately, that deadline has passed.

It’s interesting to think about where the world was around nuclear weapons in the early 90’s. I was listening to Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers I think, or maybe that was the next year- 18 years ago. The world was recovering from the Cold War- reinventing rock and roll as grunge as youth gave a big sigh and got sad. But then, I was also listening to Public Enemy and N.W.A.- what Bob Dylan had done in the 60’s, Chuck D did for the 90’s- well, at least, for me.

My point is, the emotions were releasing- sadness and anger coming out at the end of the Cold War. 18 years later there is once again a pervasive sense of anxiety around climate change and the ecological future of the Earth, not to mention the economic and financial straits that we all find ourselves in. The idea of building up or trimming down a gigantic pile of nuclear weapons somewhere sounds, well, like it’s missing the point- why would anyone need nuclear weapons? Would you have to buy carbon offsets if you dropped one? What will you do with all those dismantled nuclear bombs?

The diplomatic side of the equation is that The U.S. won’t build any anti-missile systems in Central Europe and we are cooling off our handshakes with old Soviet Republics. What we get out of it is Russia’s help with Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran. If you ask me, Obama is shrewdly negotiating on this one- nice job him. We need help with those countries a lot more than we need another missile system anywhere.

Obama’s diplomatic negotiating skills seem to be shining through of late- good thing we all sat around and waited for him to shine.

Photo Credit: Violentz (via Flickr under CCL)