New president should beef-up State's anti-nuke capabilities

June 10, 2008
Posted by Warren Strobel - McClatchy blog

Report: New president should beef-up State's anti-nuke capabilities

Nuclear weapons issues are likely to confront the next president--whether it be John McCain or Barack Obama--right from the start. There's Iran's ongoing nuclear program, negotiations with North Korea over completing its de-nuclearization and possible talks with Moscow over deeper cuts in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals -- to name just the hottest topics.

We reported more than two years ago on how a reorganiztion of the State Department's arms control and nonproliferation bureaus led to an exodus of experts with decades of experience in these highly specialized areas. Moreover, many State Department experts saw the reorganization as having strong political overtones, punishing those who were out of step with Bush administration dogma and elevating allies of former Undersecretary of State John Bolton.

Now, a new report prepared for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs comes to much the same conclusion. It says the next president should urgently beef up the State Department's capabilities in this area, and ensure that units dealing with nonproliferation and arms control matters have the necessary access to the Secretary of State and the President.

"The State Department ... which will bear the brunt of the work on nonproliferation and arms control, has lost significant capability--critical personnel have left, the arms control bureau has been abolished, and the bureau whose mandate includes nonproliferation is burdened with tasks outside its traditional purview that dilute its mission," the report says.

"Aggressive steps must be taken to redress the loss of expert staff," it continues.

The report was written by a volunteer task force of former diplomats, physicists and military officers with decades of experience in disarmament issues.

It recommends re-establishing an arms control bureau within the State Department, as well as rehiring, recruiting and strengthening career paths for personnel with nonproliferation expertise. Above all, it urges the next president to act quickly:

"Decisions on these structural issues are critical in the transition period so the new administration can hit the ground running. Iran and North Korea, among others, will not delay their proliferation progress while a new administration organizes itself."