The Foreign Service Journal, September 2009

suicide. We are in a different era. You have to understand the world has changed.” A retired partner in the law firm of King & Spalding, Sen. Nunn is also an advisory board member for the Part- nership for a Secure America, a non- profit organization dedicated to re- creating the bipartisan center in American national security and for- eign policy. Nunn is married to the former Colleen O’Brien and has two chil- dren, Michelle and Brian. Foreign Service Journal Editor Steven Alan Honley interviewed Sen. Nunn by phone on May 28. FSJ: Your award from AFSA for lifetime contributions to American diplomacy places you in the same company as President George H. W. Bush, Secretaries of State George Shultz, Cyrus Vance and Larry Ea- gleburger, Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Lee Hamilton, among others. What is it about foreign policy that has held your interest for so long? SN: I think diplomacy gives our nation, and the world, an opportunity to avoid catastrophes, resolve conflicts and head off wars. We are required to build alliances and coalitions that fur- ther American interests and strengthen both human rights and international law. FSJ: The Nunn-Lugar Act has been a landmark foreign policy pro- gram ever since its passage in 1991. What was its genesis? SN: Several things combined to make that initiative possible. My in- terest in this whole subject, and my awareness of nuclear dangers, started with the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was working for the House Armed Serv- ices Committee, right out of law school, and was on an Air Force trip to Europe during that whole crisis. I saw firsthand how close we came to nuclear war and how skillful diplo- macy helped prevent it. So that was the beginning. I also worked a lot during my time on Capi- tol Hill on the relationship between nuclear issues and other dangers we faced in our NATO and Korean force postures. After the Vietnam War, I came to see how dangerous a demor- alized military could be in its impact on critical missions — for example, the deployment of our tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. When I went to the Soviet Union in 1991, I saw the problems they had with safeguarding nuclear weapons and materiel, and biological and chemical weapons, all spread over 11 time zones. It was pretty clear to me that we had to step up to the plate and deal with this huge problem of nu- clear weapons potentially falling into the wrong hands. It was something that could have caused catastrophe, both in that area of the world and elsewhere, including the United States. All of those things combined in my mind, particularly as the Soviet Union began collapsing. In fact, when I met with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gor- bachev right after he was released from house arrest in August 1991, that was one of the concerns we discussed. I then began working with Sen. Lugar on legislation to address the problem. FSJ: How have you continued to pursue those efforts since leaving the Senate? SN: Sen. Lugar is still serving there, of course, but I’m working with a nongovernmental organization call- ed the Nuclear Threat Initiative. In addition to dealing with nuclear mat- ters, NTI focuses on biosecurity and global health threats. I’ve also joined with former Secre- taries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and former Defense Secretary William Perry, on what we call the Nuclear Security Project. The NSP is taking the lead in getting our 42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 Sen. Nunn promotes the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar leaving the White House in November 1991 after briefing President George H.W. Bush on the Nunn-Lugar legislation. Even before the Soviet Union collapsed, Sen. Nunn recognized the grave proliferation risk posed by its vast arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.