Barack Obama's pledge of a nuclear weapons-free world helped him secure the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. president is expected to outline his nuclear strategy soon, entailing the elimination of thousands of American warheads and possibly the removal of weapons from Europe. German editors offer cautious optimism over the development.

U.S. President Barack Obama's claim in Prague, Czech Republic, nearly one year ago of "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons" was one of the factors that led the Nobel Committee to bestow him with the prestigious peace prize. Obama the Superman, it seemed, could save the world.

Now the Obama administration is putting the finishing touches on its Nuclear Posture Review, the atomic strategy paper produced by each presidency. In a report on Sunday, the New York Times cited sources stating that Obama will move to permanently reduce America's arsenal by thousands of weapons, but that the administration would reject demands by some Washington politicians that it never be the first to hit the button.

According to the report, Washington will stop the development of new nuclear weapons and abandon a program started by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush to build bunker-busting, mini nuclear weapons. The new strategy is also expected to see Washington concentrate its security more on non-nuclear defenses in the future than the nuclear deterrent.

But Washington is deeply divided over how Obama should proceed with his nuclear strategy, and the chapter has provided one of many illustrations of how Obama's message of "Yes, we can," has been met with a "no, you can't" in the past year. Critics in recent months - both on the right and the left - have hammered Obama for not moving quickly enough to fulfill his nonproliferation pledges. Those on the right say his aspiration to have a nuclear weapons-free world is naive in the face of the Iranian and North Korean threat. Meanwhile, those on the left are pushing for him to make a statement that the "sole" purpose of Washington's nuclear deterrent is to prevent a nuclear attack. Others would prefer more flexible wording - that deterrence be the "primary" purpose, but not the exclusive one.