Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate: Crafting Foreign Policy from Capitol Hill

1 Snapshots of a Statesman

1 Snapshots of a Statesman I One of the last places in the world one might expect to find a senior American senator during the waning days of summer is on the western fringe of Siberia gazing at a half-finished bridge. But for Senator Richard Lugar, the two-time chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now its top Republican, the bridge he was looking at on that spectacular late August day in 2007 was a symbol of cooperation between the United States and Russia—and a harbinger of hope that the world will be able to secure, and then dispose of, weapons of mass destruction. Lugar was joined on the trip by former Democratic senator Sam Nunn, his long-time partner in the effort to help the nations of the formerSovietUnionsecuretheirweaponsof massdestruction.Nunn,now thechief executiveofficerof theNuclearThreatInitiative,wastraveling with Lugar on a weeklong trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Albania to get a first-hand assessment of how their signature program, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, was working on the ground. Lugar is one of the most knowledgeable lawmakers on foreign policy issuesandishighlyrespectedindiplomaticandmilitarycircles .Heisseen as one of those rare American politicians who understands the nuances of foreign policy, is willing to work hard at non-glamorous issues, and is effective in using the tools at his disposal to influence foreign policy. x Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate 2 He is willing to do those time-consuming and tedious tasks of legislating that capture few headlines and confer few political benefits, such as studying a half-finished bridge on the edge of Siberia. On that pleasant August day, Lugar, in a blue sport jacket and white running shoes, earnestly spoke with Russian officials, American diplomats , and a team of construction workers about the bridge over the Miass River. He askedquietly stated butwell-informed questions about constructionschedules,engineeringcomplications,andtheriver’sflood patterns. When completed, the bridge will be used to transport almost two million artillery rounds and warheads filled with sarin, soman, and VX agents from poorly secured, half-dilapidated barn-like buildings to thestate-of-the-artShchuchyeChemicalWeaponsDestructionFacility, then under construction a few miles away.1 After a 30-minute visit to the bridge site, Lugar, Nunn, and their traveling party of congressional staffers, executive branch officials, and reporters boarded a modern bus and drove through several Russian villages seemingly unchanged since the time of Tolstoy. Upon arriving at Shchuchye, the bus circled the heavily secured facility and passed an administration building, fire station, and water treatment plant before stopping at Building 101a. Here, the United States and Russia, six other countries, and the European Union were working to build a facility to eliminate a large number of Russia’s cold war era chemical weapons. Wearing white construction hardhats, Lugar and Nunn walked throughBuilding101a,whichwillbecomeoneof theworld’smostimportant chemical weapons destruction facilities but at the time resembled a half-completedparkinggarage.Lugarpepperedtheguideswithpractical questions about the construction of the facility, seeking clarity on when it will be fully operational. Shchuchye had been dogged by delays, cost overruns, and bureaucratic disputes between American and Russian officials and provoked deep skepticism from the U.S. Congress. For this project, Lugar had to summon his considerable patience and tenacity as he pleaded with skeptical lawmakers and an indifferent administration to free up the funds to allow for the completion of the facility. The senator personally lobbied Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush to allow funds for the project to go forward. Snapshots of a Statesman 3 After this tour, Nunn and Lugar were driven to an outdoor ceremony on the outer fringe of the campus. Standing behind a dozen flags of countries and groups that supported the project, they were the featured speakers at a haphazard celebratory event. Both spoke clearly about the urgent need for global cooperation and the moral imperative of controlling weapons of mass destruction. “The mission here is to make sure these weapons of mass destruction will not be used by anyone, to make sure that they will not get in the hands of terrorist groups who would not hesitate to use them,” Nunn said. Then referring to the bridge they viewed earlier in the day, Nunn became more poetic. “Bridges are not individual accomplishments . Bridges are built by many people as a way of uniting people. This bridge is a key symbol of global partnership.” Lugar,introducedbyaRussianmilitaryofficialas“thefamousSenator Lugar,” spoke next. Standing...