By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2012 – Defense Department officials yesterday
honored two men who in 1991 established a program that has become a
critical part of the U.S. approach to reducing the worldwide
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta made a surprise appearance at the
DOD-hosted Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Symposium, held at
National Defense University here.
He joined Deputy Defense
Secretary Ashton B. Carter, Madelyn R. Creedon, assistant secretary of
defense for global strategic affairs, and Air Force Gen. C. Robert
Kehler, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, all speakers at the
symposium.
“I wanted to take the opportunity to come here
specifically to honor and pay tribute to [former Georgia Sen.] Sam Nunn
and [Indiana Sen.] Dick Lugar, two very dear friends and two of finest
public servants in the history of this country,” Panetta told the packed
room.
“The program that bears their name has had a dramatic and
enduring impact on global security,” the secretary added, later awarding
each man the Distinguished Public Service Award, the department's
highest civilian honor.
Also during the symposium, Andrew C.
Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and
biological defense programs, announced on behalf of the department the
establishment of a Nunn-Lugar fellowship in partnership with the Center
for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International
Studies.
The first Nunn-Lugar Fellow, he said, is Anya Erokhina, a
graduate in nonproliferation and terrorism from Monterey. Erokhina now
works in the Office of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense
Programs.
In introductory remarks to the symposium, Creedon and
Kehler spoke of the impact the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has
made during its 20 years of operations.
“While there have been
many successes of the CTR program, one of the most remarkable is the
support it provided to three of the states of the former Soviet Union,
to enable them to be nonnuclear states and parties to the [Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons],” Creedon said.
The
program helped the countries remove or destroy all the nuclear weapons
and delivery systems they had inherited from the former Soviet Union,
she added, noting several other achievements:
-- Facilitating the
blend-down of Russia’s weapons-grade enriched uranium so that it could
be used in commercial nuclear-power reactors to produce electricity
rather than weapons;
-- Identifying alternative employment
opportunities for nuclear weapons scientists and former chemical and
biological weapons scientists, engineers and technicians; and
--
Ensuring the security of nuclear weapons at facilities and during
transport, destroying hundreds of nuclear delivery systems and thousands
of chemical munitions.
The world and its security challenges continue to change, Creedon said.
“Four years ago, Senator Lugar recognized this change and worked to
expand the CTR program’s authority beyond the states of the former
Soviet Union,” she noted. The cooperative threat reduction partnerships
have since expanded from 13 to more than 80 countries, she added, and
the nature of the program’s work has evolved.
“In addition to
securing [weapons of mass destruction], the program today works to build
partnership capacity in support of treaty and other international
obligations and promotes global nonproliferation norms in support of
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, the Global Partnership and the
Proliferation Security Initiative,” the assistant secretary said.
“DOD is also taking a more global and integrated approach to reducing WMD threats,” Creedon added.
Working closely with the departments of State and Energy and its new
regional partners, the Defense Department is putting great emphasis on
sustainability and stewardship and refocusing the program to take on a
wider range of biological threats, she noted, adding that international
support also is growing.
“Recognizing the need to reduce the
threat of WMD proliferation around the world, 24 countries from the
Global Partnership have pledged $10 million over the next 10 years to
support CTR’s efforts,” Creedon said.
Because many countries keep
dangerous pathogens for peaceful, legitimate research purposes, the
Cooperative Threat Reduction Program works with its new partners to
ensure that safety and security steps are implemented, she said.
“CTR is drawing from the lessons learned in the states of the former
Soviet Union to address biological risks around the world, particularly
Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia,” Creedon told the audience.
Speaking on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. Strategic Command,
Kehler said Nunn, Lugar and their program have made Stratcom’s job
easier and Americans safer.
“The era of one-size-fits-all
deterrence passed with the end of the Cold War,” he said. “Today, we are
applying a wider range of tools, not just nuclear forces, to our
deterrence challenges.”
Kehler said Stratcom’s most difficult
challenge may be its responsibility to synchronize planning for DOD’s
efforts to combat weapons of mass destruction.
“This challenge is
every bit as daunting as our strategic deterrence challenge, and it is
here we need significant help,” he said. “Fortunately, CTR is effective
in helping us with both our deterrence and our combating WMD problems.”
Stratcom, Kehler added, reaps the benefits of a remarkable program that
secures and then eliminates the world’s most dangerous weapons.
“The need to find, identify and track potential threats is a
never-ending task for Strategic Command, therefore the elimination of
7,000-plus warheads, 902 ICBMs … more than 150 bombers, close to 700
submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 33 submarines -- along with some
2,700 metric tons of chemical weapons -- greatly eased our intelligence
demands,” the general said.
In September alone, he added, the CTR
supported the disposal of four more ballistic-missile submarines and
another 161-plus metric tons of chemical nerve agents.
“I can
therefore devote a portion of our intelligence resources to some of the
many other threats that confront us today,” Kehler said, adding that the
Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has been and will
continue to be a powerful tool in the national effort to reduce the
threat from weapons of mass destruction.
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