With his vision and statesmanship, President Kennedy demonstrated that strength lies in the pursuit of peace and not war.

The world is likely to continue to live with a nuclear disorder with nuclear arms race and proliferation. Unfortunately, it may take another major nuclear crisis for the world to heed President Kennedy’s warning in his 1963 American University speech.

This anniversary is a reminder that nuclear weapons have dramatically raised the value of a certain political style. We cannot wait for another brush with annihilation to relearn the virtues of compromise, coexistence, and genuine great power peace.

In “A Strategy of Peace,” President Kennedy outlined a gradual evolution toward genuine peace, a dynamic process to bridge the evident divide between the two major nuclear powers of the day. Over fifty years later, President Obama’s address in Prague echoed many of Kennedy’s core themes: the danger posed by the continued existence of nuclear weapons and the need for cooperation in the face of seemingly intractable differences. 

The relevance of Kennedy’s speech to the current U.S.-Russia arms control situation is clear: it calls for a return to diplomacy, open dialogue, and a recognition of shared interests, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.