Events Detail

The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) was pleased to host a Roundtable on Interagency Reform discussing a case study on "US Landmine Policy and the Ottawa Process" by COL (ret) Dennis Barlow, Director of the Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University.

 

 

Hudson Institute, Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center, 6^th floor Auditorium, 1015 15th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Refreshments will be provided.

 

For more information please contact Richard Weitz at weitz@hudson.org.

 

In summer of 1994, President Clinton continued a trend among American political leaders as he called for the eventual elimination of anti-personnel landmines (APL). By the winter of 1997, the so-called "Ottawa Treaty" to ban landmines had been signed by 122 nations, with Washington watching from the outside. Many U.S. officials were not only embarrassed by the absence of an American signature, but also surprised by the way the United States it had become isolated in the process. How is it that the country that had provided so much impetus to highly successful arms control venues, and which had taken the morale high ground on this very issue, found itself in such a situation? Was it an indication of an interagency process unsuited for a world in which middle power nations and NGOs share power? Was it the result of a press and public focused on celebrity based sound bites at the expense of solid and complex diplomacy? Was it a White House gaffe caused by the vacillations of a President reluctant to do battle with the Pentagon? Or was it perhaps not a diplomatic failure at all, but a public relations anomaly? What caused the debacle and what can we learn from it?  This case study identifies the key events which defined the U.S. landmine policy position and analyses the effects of that process.

 

The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) is a non-partisan initiative sponsored by the non-profit Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP). PNSR seeks to improve the U.S. Government's ability to integrate all elements of national power and more effectively respond to the strategic challenges of the 21st century. Modeled on the historic effort that led to the Goldwater-Nichols legislation, PNSR has established nine working groups that have begun a rigorous study of the national security system. Historical case studies constitute the first element of the study methodology. These case studies will inform the analytic work of PNSR's other working groups by highlighting recurring trends in the way the U.S. national security system responds to complex national security problems. Ultimately, PNSR will produce recommendations on changes to the National Security Act of 1947, presidential directives to implement other reforms, and new Congressional committee structures and practices.

Sincerely,

Richard Weitz, Ph.D., Leader

Case Studies Working Group

Project on National Security Reform