SVEN KRAEMER SHOOTS HOLES IN LYNN DAVIS’ DEFENSE OF CLINTON NON-PROLIFERATION POLICIES

(Washington, D.C.): Yesterday, Congress was given a first-hand
look at the foolishness that passes for Clinton Administration
counter-proliferation policy toward China — and other possible
adversaries now arming themselves with weapons of mass
destruction and long-range ballistic missile delivery systems.
And it was not a pretty sight.

In fact, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security Policy Lynn Davis engaged
in serious dissembling before the House International Relations
Committee. This was evident in her testimony and response to
questions about compliance problems with existing treaties and
the prospects for the verification and enforcement of those now
under negotiation. Especially tortured were her efforts to
explain away recurrent Chinese proliferation practices inimical
to U.S. interests and regional stability.

For example, when challenged about the Administration’s recent
refusal to impose sanctions on China for selling ring magnets
(used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons) to Pakistan, Dr.
Davis made much of the fact that China has pledged not to do so
again and that the pledge represented “an important policy
achievement.” To his credit, the International Relations
Committee’s Chairman, Rep. Benjamin Gilman
(R-NY), gave such banalities the short shrift they are due: “Fighting
proliferation isn’t about getting meaningless pledges from
governments that don’t have a good track record of adhering to
earlier pledges …. Fighting proliferation isn’t about ignoring
overwhelming evidence of illegal transfers.”

Rep. Gilman’s critique was powerfully seconded by Sven
Kraemer — former Director of Arms Control for the
National Security Council and a founding member of the Center for
Security Policy’s Board of Advisors. In a sweeping tour
d’horizon addressing the burgeoning threat posed by
proliferation in general and Chinese behavior in particular, Mr.
Kraemer demonstrated the dangerous shortcomings of the
Administration’s non-proliferation policies. Mr. Kraemer
observed:

“The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is
a mounting strategic threat to the United States….The
global proliferation threat is compounded by the illusions,
cover-ups and weaknesses of Clinton Administration defense
and foreign policies which are heading America and her key
allies for the bull’s eye of disaster….It is
necessary to describe threats realistically, to use the
instruments of American leverage, to stem the flows of
advanced dual-purpose technologies that are the wild-card of
proliferation, to give teeth to sanctions against violators,
and to have military means and deployed defenses
available in case sanctions and arms agreements fail.”

The Center commends the full text of Mr. Kraemer’s remarks (the full transcript of which is
attached) to every thinking American — in Congress and among
the public at large — who appreciates the need for realism,
rather than wishful thinking, about the purposeful proliferation
being undertaken by the Chinese and other bad actors around the
world.