In December 2008 in Paris—in response to the growing threats of proliferation and nuclear terrorism—100 leaders from around the world launched Global Zero. They announced a plan for the phased, verified elimination of nuclear weapons, starting with deep reductions in the U.S. and Russian arsenals, to be followed by multilateral negotiations among all nuclear powers for an agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons—global zero. The growing group includes former heads of state, former foreign ministers, former defense ministers, former national security advisors, and more than 20 former top military commanders.

Presidents Obama's and Medvedev's commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons—matched by growing support from governments around the world—represents an historic opportunity to stop proliferation and end the nuclear threat once and for all by setting the world on the course to the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Global Zero is working on three fronts to achieve this goal:

1) developing a step-by-step plan for the elimination of nuclear weapons based on the Paris conference framework;

2) conducting track-two diplomacy to build support among key governments; and

3) generating broad-based worldwide public support through media and online communications and grassroots organizing.

Global Zero convened two hundred international leaders for the Global Zero Summit on February 2-4, 2010.

The plan calls for the U.S. and Russia to cut their arsenals to 1,000 total warheads each and for all other countries with nuclear weapons to commit to freeze their arsenals.

These two steps would be followed by the first multilateral nuclear arms reductions negotiations in history.