The Robert S. Strauss Center welcomed former United States Senator Sam Nunn to the LBJ Library on Thursday, November 20. Senator Nunn, now the Chairman and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), shared his experiences from a four-decade long career in nuclear and defense policy and offered his perspectives on the future of U.S. nuclear non-proliferation efforts.

Senator Nunn began the discussion by describing an experience early in his career that first exposed him to the danger of nuclear weapons. Senator Nunn described how he was at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in 1962. Talking to an Air Force General on base, Senator Nunn remembers hearing how dangerously close the United States and the Soviet Union had come to nuclear war. This sobering experience made him deeply concerned about the prospects of nuclear war, and he took these concerns to the U.S. Senate when he was elected in 1972.

Senator Nunn spoke at length about the origins, challenges and current state of the Nunn-Lugar Program. When the Soviet Union broke apart, it left behind biological, chemical and nuclear weapons “spread across 11 time zones.” In fact, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus had more nukes than several Western European nations combined. Senator Nunn explained how he and Senator Richard Lugar drafted and ultimately passed in 1992 a program to help Russia “get control” of the thousands of nuclear weapons left in the newly established nations previously behind the “Iron Curtain.” Since 1993, U.S. and Russian efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program have helped lead to the deactivation or destruction of thousands of nuclear warheads and other weapons of mass destruction. Although great progress has been made, much more work needs to be done, explained Nunn.

With respect to nuclear non-proliferation progress since the 1970s, Senator Nunn stressed that although the United States has accomplished a great deal, it has also been “very lucky” that no nuclear weapons have been used since 1945. Senator Nunn argued that the United States was not likely to continue to be lucky for the next 50 years. With heightened terrorist threats and with countries like Iran and North Korea seeking nuclear weapons, Senator Nunn stressed that non-proliferation efforts will continue to get tougher and tougher.

Continuing on, Nunn posited that U.S. nuclear policy must also be modernized. Washington should make it clear to the rest of the world that it is committed to abolishing its nuclear arsenal. This will not and cannot be a unilateral move by the United States. Nunn stressed the importance of the United States working with both nuclear and non-nuclear powers to lead the charge in non-proliferation and nuclear weapon destruction efforts.

A key to the future success of non-proliferation efforts will be the continued cooperation between the United States and Russia, as together these two countries control the majority of nuclear weapons and material globally. Other keys include a global system of control and accounting for nuclear weapons and related materials, the ceasing of any type of fissile material trade as well as an updated version of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In particular, Nunn argued that the NPT had the “vision” but not the detailed “steps” that lay out a clear roadmap to nuclear weapon abolishment.

Senator Sam Nunn is co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. He served as a United States Senator from Georgia for 24 years (1973-1997) and is retired from the law firm of King & Spalding. Raised in the small town of Perry in middle Georgia, he attended Georgia Tech, Emory University and Emory Law School, where he graduated with honors in 1962. After active duty service in the U.S. Coast Guard, he served six years in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. He first entered politics as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1968. During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator Nunn served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

He also served on the Intelligence and Small Business Committees. His legislative achievements include the landmark Department of Defense Reorganization Act, drafted with the late Senator Barry Goldwater, and the “Nunn-Lugar” Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which provides assistance to Russia and the former Soviet republics for securing and destroying their excess nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In addition to his work with NTI, Senator Nunn has continued his service in the public policy arena as a distinguished professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech and as chairman of the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Watch the presentation below:

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