The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 41 on Armed Services, he worked with Sen. Barry Goldwater to draft the landmark Department of Defense Reorganiza- tion Act. He also chaired the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and served on the Intelligence and Small Business Committees. In September 1994, President Bill Clinton dispatched Sen. Nunn, former President Jimmy Carter and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell to Haiti to ne- gotiate the departure of Lieutenant General Raoul Cedras. Days later, American forces escorted the coun- try’s elected president, Jean-Ber- trand Aristide, into the capital. Afterwards, Pres. Clinton lavished praise on Nunn’s delegation: “As all of you know, at my request, Presi- dent Carter, Gen. Colin Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn went to Haiti to facilitate the dictator’s departure. I have been in constant contact with them for the last two days. They have worked tirelessly, almost around the clock, and I want to thank them for un- dertaking this crucial mission on behalf of all Americans,” Clinton said. Upon his exit from the Senate, Nunn was the recipient of bipartisan praise from his colleagues. Senator John Warner, R- Va., commented: “Senator Nunn quickly established himself as one of the leading experts in the Congress and, indeed, all of the United States on national security and foreign policy. He gained a reputa- tion in our country and, indeed, world- wide as a global thinker, and that is where I think he will make his greatest contribution in the years to come. … His approach to national security issues has been guided by one fundamental criterion: What Sam Nunn believes is in the best interest of the United States of America.” Post-Senate Career After retiring from Congress in 1996, Sen. Nunn be- came co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nu- clear Threat Initiative, a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. His work to strengthen global security has resulted in nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, 2002 and 2005. And in 2008, he received the Hess- ian Peace Prize for his commitment to promoting nuclear disarmament and combating nuclear terrorism. As a past chairman of the board of the Center for Strate- gic and International Studies, Nunn and his former Senate colleague (and former Defense Secretary) William Cohen joined together in 1999 for a series of public roundtable discus- sions to focus Americans on the sem- inal issues that the United States faces around the globe. The Cohen- Nunn Dialogues featured top lead- ers, public policy experts, prominent journalists and leading scholars. The former senator is a distin- guished professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, the only professional school of international affairs at a major American technical institu- tion. That institution offers overseas programs in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and hosts the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy, as well as the European Union Center of Excellence, a scholarly re- search and outreach organization. The school also hosts the annual Sam Nunn Policy Forum, a meeting that brings to- gether noted academic, governmental and private-sector experts on technol- ogy, public policy and international af- fairs to address issues of immediate importance to the nation. In 2005, Nunn teamed up with former Senator Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., to promote “Last Best Chance,” a filmdram- atizing the dangers of unsecured nuclear weapons andmateri- als that aired on Home Box Office in October of that year. Nunn — along with former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and former Secretary of De- fense William Perry — has repeatedly called upon all gov- ernments to embrace the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. The four leaders have created the Nuclear Se- curity Project to advance this agenda. Speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government on Oct. 21, 2008, Nunn explained what drives his commitment to the NSP: “I’m much more concerned about a terrorist without a return address that cannot be de- terred than I am about deliberate war between nuclear pow- ers. You can’t deter a group who is willing to commit President Barack Obama has hailed former Sen. Nunn for upholding the tradition of a bipartisan foreign policy. Sen. Sam Nunn