Former Presidential Advisor And Others Reminisce Over End of Cold War

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, reflected on the final days of the Cold War at a discussion hosted by the German Marshall Fund at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

“We wanted to encourage the liberalizing regimes, especially in Poland and in Hungary,” he said. “But we wanted to do it at a pace which would not bring about Soviet reaction as happened in Germany in ‘53, Hungary in ‘56, Czechoslovakia in ‘68. We didn’t know exactly what that was, but we were sort of feeling our way. How much should we encourage Eastern Europe? How much should we be cautious?”

Scowcroft spoke in a panel that included Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Germany, and Robert Kimmitt, former United States Ambassador to Germany. BBC World News Washington Correspondent Katty Kay presided over the discussion, which was held in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred on Nov. 9, 1989.

A barrier separating Eastern and Western Germany, the Berlin Wall symbolized the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Soviet Union-dominated Eastern Bloc. The fall of the wall tends to be synonymous with the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

[Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989] believed one can reform socialism,” said Genscher. “Later, he had to learn that you could not reform socialism, you could only overcome socialism. That happened in 1989.”

Key U.S.-Russia Non-Proliferation Treaty May Expire Without Renewal, Say Foreign Affairs Experts

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Charles D. Ferguson and Stephen Sestanovich, Senior Fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations, explained that the 1991 START non-proliferation treaty may not be renewed following the U.S.-Russia Summit this July.

“There can’t be an agreement unless there’s also a formal renunciation by the U.S of the missile defense plan. That’s rather unlikely to happen, and if the Russian stick to that line, the chances of arms control are [slim],” said Sestanovich.

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was ratified in 1991 by Russia and the U.S in an effort to achieve a dramatic reduction in strategic forces such as warheads and inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in the post-Cold War era.

According to the U.S. based Arms Control Association, “Russia claimed 4,237 total deployed strategic warheads under the terms of the 1991 START nuclear reductions agreement” while the U.S has 3,696 deployed strategic warheads.

“What has really agitated the Russians... is the American plan to deploy some rather basic elements of the missile defense system in Eastern Europe,” Sestanovich explained, referencing the Bush administration’s decision to install missiles at a base in Poland and to build a radar station in the Czech Republic. Both deals intended to protect Europe from “rogue states” such as Iran.

Ferguson added, “The [Obama] administration has a review of its missile defense policy on the way, and that makes it a little more difficult for them to reach any specific understandings with the Russian about this issue. They can’t offer certain kinds of assurances.”

President Barack Obama has recently agreed to halt military developments in Eastern Europe if Russia agrees to participate actively against Iran.

Ferguson countered Moscow’s accusations that a U.S presence in neighboring states is a serious military threat, saying “What we are looking at is a much smaller, much more modest missile defense system... There’s really no technical reasons for the Russians to be worried at this stage about missile defense as it is currently proposed.”

Return to Camelot

A call for new directions was at the crux of the Center for a New American Security’s (CNAS) second annual June conference. At a session entitled “A New U.S. Grand Strategy”, panelists gathered to discuss their views on possible grand strategies to help America move forward.

Panelist Michele Flournoy, CNAS president and co-founder, said that the in-coming president will face a daunting national security situation. Presently, more than 350 thousand military personnel have been deployed overseas. Compounded to that, there is an increased threat in nuclear terrorism, severe global climate change and a greater power shift to countries such as India and China. In Flournoy’s opinion, now is the time to pivot from the legacy of the Cold War and to start thinking of security challenges in new ways. Since the Cold War, America has not had a grand strategy and so it must widen its strategic aperture and get back to fundamentals.

Derek Chollet, CNAS Senior Fellow, pointed out that 9/11 did not change everything but its mirror date 11/9, the fall of the Berlin wall that ended the Cold War, marked a time when America was most unified. He conceded that 9/11 did unify America for a while but the divisions of the 1990s are re-emerging in American society.

Panelists agreed that leaders should have contextual intelligence and not simply reuse past methods for similar current situations. The session felt it was time for the in-coming president to reclaim moral high ground and ‘export hope and optimism, not anger’ to the rest of the world.