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

4 A World Awash in Weapons

4 A World Awash inWeapons I In May 2009, Richard Lugar attended a conference on Islam hosted by the Aspen Institute in Dubrovnik, Croatia. After the initial session concluded, Lugar left and headed for the airport, where he boarded a U.S. military plane for a 5-hour flight to Chelyabinsk, Russia, on the western edge of Siberia. The senator interrupted the comfort of the Aspen conference to attend the opening ceremonies of the Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in Shchuchye. Lugar arrived at Chelyabinsk a little before midnight, checked into a Holiday Inn, and was on the road by 7 the next morning for the 2.5-hour drive to Shchuchye. This trip, Lugar’s fourth visit to Shchuchye, represented the culmination of a long struggle to help build this chemical weapons destruction facility in Russia. Lugar’s more than decade-long battle to support Russia’s construction of this facility included tense congressional tussles with those who opposed helping Russia until it behaved better in the world and fully adhered to its obligations under treaties it signed regarding the eliminationof biologicalandchemicalweapons.TheShchuchyeprojectraninto serious cost overruns, disputes with contractors, misunderstandings with Russian officials, and bewildering certification requirements in Americanlaw.Onatleastadozenoccasionsoverthepastdecade,Lugar interceded to keep the project on track. He made calls to Secretary x Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate 62 of State Condoleezza Rice and personal pleas to President George W. Bush, sent letters to congressional colleagues, and maneuvered to push America’s funding commitments through Congress and the complex Pentagon bureaucracy.1 Lugar viewed the building of a state-of-the-art chemical weapons destruction facility in Russia as hugely important for practical and symbolic reasons. To help get it built, he took on multiple roles: senior statesman, legislative dealmaker, international diplomat, and bureaucratic operative. The nearly two million chemical weapons that will eventually be destroyed in this facility were housed for years in 14 dilapidated wood buildings. Sam Nunn was shocked when he first saw the ramshackle buildings and quipped that he wouldn’t keep a good horse in them—let alone a huge arsenal of deadly weapons.2 After intense collaboration among the United States, Russia, Canada, the European Union, the Czech Republic, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, the facility was about to open. A temporary bandstand-like structure had been constructed for the opening ceremony on a parade field outside the facility. Lugar was given 5 minutes to explain why a chemical destruction plant on the edge of Siberia was important to Russia, America, and the world. “The path to peace and prosperity for both Russia and the United States depends on how we resolve the threats posed by arsenals built to fight World War III. Thankfully, that confrontation never came. But today we must ensure that the weapons are never used, and never fall into the hands of those who would do harm to us or others.” Lugar recalled that in 1991 he and Nunn understood that a unilateral American effort to address the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction would not succeed. Working within the Congress, they created a new program to provide American funds and technical expertise to help safeguard and then dismantle stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in the former Soviet Union. “We challenged the United States and our former enemies to work together,” he said, referring to the creation of the Nunn-Lugar program. This program helped persuade Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus to give up their nuclear arsenals and led to years of collaboration between the United States and Russia to secure and then destroy Russia’s weapons and nuclear materials.3 A World Awash in Weapons 63 The Nunn-Lugar program, the senator said, is the primary tool through which the United States still works with Russia to safely destroy nuclear, chemical, and biological arsenals. He noted that the United States and Russia, working cooperatively, had eliminated more nuclear weapons than the combined arsenals of the United Kingdom, France, and China. “Even during moments of tension between our two countries, the Nunn-Lugar program has remained a constant,” he said proudly. Lugar acknowledged that the journey to complete Shchuchye hadbeencomplicated,arduous,andsometimesacrimonious.“Theroad to this day has not been smooth. There have been delays caused by the apprehension of the U.S. Congress, bureaucratic obstruction, problems with Russian funding, and contractor disputes. Through it all, Americans and Russians worked together to...