Center For Security Policy Commends “Mosbacher Principles” On East-West Trade

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. commended Secretary Mosbacher for his approach to East-West economic relations and called on the Administration to obtain greater alliance coordination in East-West economic and financial security matters. Gaffney is the director of the Center for Security Policy and a former senior official in the Department of Defense.

"The Mosbacher principles provide a much-needed road map to establish clearly defined milestones against which Soviet behavior can be judged and appropriate steps by the West calibrated," said Gaffney. "We strongly urge the Administration to seek the adoption of the Mosbacher principles and other, prudent economic and financial security measures on an alliance-wide basis as one of the principal outcomes of the coming NATO and Paris economic summits," added Gaffney.

Gaffney’s remarks addressed U.S. policy approaches to the Soviet Union drawing from a recently-released Center paper entitled An Alternative "National Security Review." The report questions current Administration assumptions concerning Gorbachev’s intentions and points to numerous areas in Soviet military affairs, foreign policy, and domestic politics, which suggest the Kremlin’s determination to preserve — not transform — the Soviet system.

"Recent events suggest that the Bush Administration has adopted a bifurcated, if not schizophrenic, policy towards the Soviet Union. On the one hand, much of the Administration’s rhetoric reflects a healthy, and justified, skepticism about the genuineness of the Soviet government’s commitment to systemic reform. On the other hand, recent policy initiatives by President Bush seem predicated on the belief that the USSR under Gorbachev is committed to a course that will radically transform the character of the Soviet political, economic and military system," said Gaffney.

"Now more than ever, U.S. initiative and leadership are required if the West is to define Gorbachev’s success in terms consistent with democratic interests rather than his own. Both will be required in quantity if the present impulse to accede to Gorbachev’s efforts aimed at sowing discord within the Western alliance and obtaining a massive economic bail-out is to be resisted and the conditions for lasting peace and prosperity created," says Gaffney.