Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Speech, UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler, Carnegie Non-Proliferation Conference, 11 January 1999
NATO will celebrate its 50th anniversary this spring--a long run for a political-military alliance, as for a marriage. In preparing to renew their vows, some partners, such as Germany and Canada, would like to adjust the alliance to post-Cold War changes. Unfortunately, the U.S. revealed last month that it is determined to keep the world in the dark about NATO nuclear affairs.
In the Byzantine twilight of Russian political life it is ironically now the Communists (long-time treaty detractors) who seem ready to give the green light for the ratification of the START II treaty. The recent ascendancy of several prominent Communists into the cabinet of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov has turned the tide in favor of ratification.
Amidst the debris left by the final days of the 105th Congress may be our best chance to stabilize a dangerous situation on the Korean Peninsula. Congress is balking at providing $35 million for the shipment of fuel oil to North Korea in exchange for the shipment of plutonium out of that country.
Proliferation Roundtable
This week, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will try to gather support at the United Nations to counter Iraq’s defiance of the Security Council-mandated inspections regime. If inspections were to cease permanently, how quickly could Iraq reconstruct its prohibited weapons programs?