Sunday Noon: World w/out Nukes Edition

Benen finds that Obama is GETTING THE KNACK OF INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY....

There was a bit of a stir this week when President Obama intervened at the G20 summit to resolve a dispute over tax havens between France and China. The substance of Obama's role seemed pretty minor -- the president proposed that the G20 merely "take note" of offending tax havens based on a list published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, instead of "spotlighting" the list -- but these diplomatic nuances make or break agreements all the time.

Obama apparently had another opportunity to show some negotiating skills yesterday.

At the NATO summit, member nations were poised to make Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen the next secretary general of NATO, but officials from Turkey objected, and wanted the opportunity to raise objections.

ABC's Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller, relying on an official in the room who isn't part of the Obama administration, reported that the president, after voicing his support for Rasmussen, was able to play "the lead role" in resolving the tension.

Obama told his fellow NATO leaders that he believed Rasmussen was the right man for the job, but that everyone needs to be convinced. Mr. Obama told the leaders that all countries need to be able voice their concerns.

With that, Turkish President Abdullah Gul voiced his concerns. This enabled Gul to avoid "feeling like a decision was already precooked," the source says. "This was critical because like other countries, if you're put in a corner then you recede. If you feel like people are forcing you into a decision that has already been made you'll rebel."

Adds the source: "It's important for small counties to feel that they have a voice. Obama gave this to Turkey."

Obama, Rasmussen, and Gul met privately, twice, and returned to the main session all smiles, "indicating that a deal of some sort had been clinched."

A non-Obama administration source told ABC, "This was a different style than what the leader are used to from a U.S. President. Obama was instrumental in making this happen. Obama eventually clenched the decision with his leadership -- and because he listened to what people said."

Like the G20 story, this seems pretty simple. Obama apparently smoothed over a point of potential conflict by encouraging Turkey to have a chance to raise concerns. That is hardly the stuff of a multi-level game of diplomatic chess.

But obvious or not, President Obama is winning some plaudits for stepping up and showing some leadership on the international stage -- a task his predecessor was unable to pull off.

• Benen on 'A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS'....

  In October 2007, then-candidate Barack Obama tackled the issue of nuclear proliferation, and explained why the U.S. should drastically reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism, as part of the larger goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world. The Obama policy was largely in line with a bipartisan proposal offer a few months earlier by George Shultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn.

  In Prague today, Obama followed up on this by reiterating his commitment and sketching out his vision to an international audience.

  Obama made his pledge before 20,000 flag-waving Czechs outside the gates of picturesque Prague Castle. He chose a nation that peacefully threw off communism and helped topple nuclear power Soviet Union as the backdrop for presenting an ambitious plan to stop the global spread of dangerous weapons.

  "Let us honor our past by reaching for a better future," Obama said.

  Shifting on an eight-day European trip from the economic crisis to the war in Afghanistan and now nuclear capabilities, Obama said his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons" won't be reached soon, "perhaps not in my lifetime."

  But he said the United States, with one of the world's largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, has a "moral responsibility" to start taking steps now.

  Administration officials sought to use North Korea's missile launch as part of the strategy -- with the U.S. president calling for a reduction in nuclear arms, and ultimately the elimination of the weapons, Obama will presumably have added leverage on the issue. "We are trying to seek the moral high ground," Gary Samore, Obama's arms control coordinator, said.

  The plan reportedly includes a variety of short- and long-term tasks, including U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, a nuclear weapons summit, strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a new treaty with Russia on arsenal reduction, a new initiative to secure all vulnerable nuclear material, and the creation of an international fuel bank as part of a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation.

  As for the politics of this, I suspect the right will dismiss much of this as fantasy. I recall one far-right blogger arguing in October 2007 that Obama's counter-proliferation was literally laughable: "It's almost like the Obama is a child's toy, who has been programmed with nothing but Hallmark Card greetings and random snippets from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. You pull the string once and it's, "I love puppies and warm milk!" You pull it again and ... it's, 'Let's get rid of all the world's nuclear weapons because we can't hug each other with nuclear arms!'"

  I wouldn't be surprised if there were similarly foolish reactions today. I'd just remind our friends on the right that there was one famous liberal who called for the abolishment of "all nuclear weapons," which he considered to be "totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization."

  It was Ronald Reagan.