FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4, 2004
Prominent security expert and former lawmaker, Alexei Arbatov, will head the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Project, announced Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Under his leadership, the program will take a fundamentally new approach to nonproliferation issues: first and foremost, it will examine the ways in which “legitimate” nuclear states work against the cause of nonproliferation, intentionally or not.
“Alexei is a tremendous addition not only to our work at the Moscow Center but also to the Endowment’s international leadership in non-proliferation,” said Mathews. “The timing for his arrival is ideal, as the world grapples with new ways to address these urgent issues.”
“He is recognized in Russia and internationally as a leader in addressing the challenges of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and in promoting global security more broadly,” said Carnegie Moscow Center director Andrew Kuchins. “We are delighted he’s joining us.”
From 1994 until December 2003, Arbatov served as a deputy of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, where he wrote and initiated a number of crucial bills on the military and co-wrote fundamental amendments to existing laws on state secrets, military law, budgeting and other areas. He took part in negotiations on START I and in working groups on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and START II.
As a scholar in residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center, Arbatov will continue to head the Center for International Security at Moscow’s Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He has written seven books and co-authored more than 30, among numerous other smaller publications. He earned his Ph.D. in history and is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Arbatov holds membership in the WMD Commission chaired by Dr. Hans Blix, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s scientific council and the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. He is also a member and professor of the Presidential Academy of Defense, Security and Law Enforcement. He holds a number of military and civic honors.