Modulating U.S. Confrontation with Russia and Iran
Abstract
On February 15, 2001, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accused Russia on national television of being a major source of missile technology proliferation. In the course of a discussion about the defense budget and a national missile defense, Rumsfeld said: "Russia is an active proliferator; they are part of the problem. They are selling and assisting countries like Iran and North Korea and India and other countries with these technologies which are threatening other people including the United States and Western Europe and countries in the Middle East. Rumsfeld echoed the conclusions of Director of Central Intelligence Tenet in a statement made a week earlier before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Tenet noted Iran was one of three countries posing a serious ballistic missile threat to the Untied States and its interests and fingered Russia as a primary source of ballistic missile technology for Iran. Bashing Russian proliferation is a favorite sport in Washington; it demonstrates our concerns about Russia and Iran as individual nations as well as how they interact with each other. And it underscores the difficulty we face as we assist Russia in its transition to a market-based economy with strong democratic values, as we encourage the emerging democracies in the Caucasus to bend West instead of North, South, or East, and as we pursue a strong policy of containment toward Iran. In my view, our current strategy relative to relations between Russia and Iran is too extreme: we should modulate our political discourse on proliferation with Russia to reflect a more pragmatic and less dogmatic tone, we should broaden our approach to the Caucasus to encourage more balanced relations with its neighbors to the North and South, and we should refine our containment policy toward Iran to bring us in sync with our allies and other partners in the region on trade and other relations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 26, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA441517
Entities
People
- John Ballif
Organizations
- National War College