#6 - JRL 7023
CDI Weekly Defense Monitor
Volume 7, Issue #2 * January 16, 2003
CDI Hosts Moscow Conference on Confidence Building
Measures
Dr. Wayne Glass, Senior Advisor, wglass@usc.edu
The Center for Defense Information joined with the Institute of Strategic Stability (ISS) of the Russian Federation's Ministry of Atomic Energy (MINATOM) to host a two-day conference in Moscow during December 5-6, 2002. Bruce Blair, President of CDI and Academician Viktor Mikhailov, former Minister of MINATOM and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, co-hosted the event that took place at the Ararat Park Hotel near the Kremlin in Moscow. Academician Mikhailov heads the Institute of Strategic Stability and also serves as the head of research at the Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFYaTs-VNIIEF).
The conference on "Confidence Building Measures in the Nuclear Sphere and Problems of Strategic Stability" featured a presentation by visiting Congressman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) who spoke to the participants about the critical importance of US and Russian cooperation in the fight against terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Congressman Weldon is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee who served as Chairman of the Military Research and Development Subcommittee during the recently completed 107th Congress. Mr. Weldon pledged to continue to monitor and support key cooperative programs, including DoD's Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs, the nonproliferation programs managed by the Department of Energy, and the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program, a joint cooperative technology demonstration program to improve missile defense against Scud missiles. CDI has been a strong supporter of those programs in the past and welcomed Mr. Weldon's encouraging remarks.
Conference participants focused on three general problem areas in their presentations and discussions: recent evolutions in Russian-American relations and related prospects for arms control regimes and nuclear non-proliferation; reducing the nuclear threat between the two nations; and potential means of cooperation in the international war against terrorism. US delegates from the Department of State, the Department of Energy, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories made presentations and offered innovative ideas. The US delegation also included senior representatives of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council (RANSAC), the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and RAND. The CDI delegation, headed by Bruce Blair, also included Phil Coyle, former Director of Operational Testing in the Pentagon, Dr. Ivan Safranchuk, CDI's representative in Moscow, and Dr. Wayne Glass, former senior Senate defense advisor.
Topics of US presentations covered a wide range of timely subjects of mutual concern to both delegations. Bruce Blair addressed the conference on future directions for arms control negotiations and was joined by Elliott Schwartz of RAND to discuss specific issues regarding dealerting of strategic nuclear forces. Dr. Rose Gottemoeller of Carnegie spoke about potential cooperative measures beyond the Moscow Treaty and later offered remarks with Jane Purcell of the State Department and Jim Doyle of Los Alamos National Laboratory in discussing particulars of the Treaty. Dr. Frank Von Hippel of Princeton, Bob Berls of NTI, and Bill Hoehn of RANSAC made presentations on various cooperative non-proliferation programs including DOE nuclear security programs, nuclear materials stockpile reduction, and Highly Enriched Uranium. Dr. Von Hippel also presented ideas about cooperative measures for reducing the submarine strategic threat. Phil Coyle of CDI presented remarks regarding the US strategic missile defense program and was later joined in discussion by Dr. Wayne Glass who commented on RAMOS and issues relating to joint research and development for missile defense. Michael Levi of FAS gave a presentation on US plans for the "bunker buster" nuclear weapon and its nuclear testing implications. Ed Fei of the Department of Energy discussed potential cooperative measures regarding proliferation in South Asia. Dr. Dori Ellis of Sandia offered some well-received thoughts on cooperative opportunities in counterterrorism.
The Russian delegation included 51 members representing key organizations and governmental agencies with oversight responsibilities for US-Russia cooperative programs. In addition to the Institute of Strategic Stability, Russian delegates represented key research institutes for Experimental Physics, Technical Physics, Automation, Pulse Technology, and Measuring Systems. General Yuri Baluyevsky, First Deputy Head of the Russian General Staff, led a delegation from Russia's Ministry of Defense and Mikhail Lysenko, Director of the Department of Security and Disarmament, represented a team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Delegates from the Russian Academy of Military Sciences and the Ministry of Atomic Energy also participated.
Academician Mikhailov and Bruce Blair signed a conference protocol this month that summarizes the results of the conference and outlines future directions for cooperation between CDI and ISS. Both parties have agreed to convene future conferences on confidence building and strategic cooperation in order to develop joint recommendations to the US and Russian governments on future cooperative steps. CDI will publish the proceedings of the Moscow conference in coming months.
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