Speaking at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev called for a renewed commitment to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons, saying the current generation of world leaders cannot coast on disarmament treaties of the past.
Gorbachev said the world missed an opportunity for greater global cooperation in the Cold War’s wake, describing the past 18 years as ones of “stagnation and regression,†where even avoiding a war in the middle of Europe was beyond the world’s leaders.
“After the Cold War, we lost our way, the world lost its way,†Gorbachev said. “We should be moving toward the goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.â€
Gorbachev acknowledged that the world has changed significantly since the Cold War’s end, but said the recent re-militarization — particularly that of the United States — is puzzling.
“I really don’t know who the U.S. wants to go to war with, nobody wants to go to war with the U.S.,†Gorbachev said.