Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Proliferation Roundtable
Congress and the Administration are in a rush to deploy a national missile defense system. Brushing aside the stubborn facts of failed tests and declining global missile arsenals, each is outbidding the other with budgets and timetables. Both the Senate and the House will vote this month on bills to mandate deployment.
A major intraparty battle is now shaping up over the issue of Kosovo. The outcome of this intra-GOP battle may shape the course of Republican foreign policy for years to come, and it will certainly shape the contest in 2000. If the Republicans want to run against Al Gore as the party of responsible leadership in foreign policy, the time to start is now.
President Clinton announced new funding for an expanded threat reduction initiative in Russia. Unfortunately this new funding commitment still does not match the threat. The degradation in security of Russia’s nuclear weapon complex and the economic collapse in August 1998 has put the safety of nuclear materials and nuclear intelligence in jeopardy.
The Chinese, assumed to be ignorant of American politics and culture, have proved over the years to be skilled manipulators. Americans, in turn, have been acquiescing to Chinese stipulations about the subject, manner, timing, and location of negotiations. In About Face, Mann has brilliantly catalogued how American policy-makers have made the least of a strong hand in dealing with Beijing.