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Newsletter:  May 2002/ Issue 2
IGRSS Offers Arms Control Course Taught by Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.

The Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies (IGRSS) is offering a course on arms control this Spring Quarter at the University of Washington (UW). The course, “International Law and Arms Control,” is taught by Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., former Acting Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), and Special Representative of President Clinton for Arms Control and Disarmament.

Graham is currently the President of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security, a nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization concerned with proliferation issues. During his twenty-seven years with ACDA, Graham was involved with every major arms control agreement in which the United States participated.

Graham’s course provides extensive history on arms control including its beginnings, and background on chemical and biological weapons issues. It also teaches about specific agreements like the SALT, START, ABM, INF, and Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaties. In addition, the class reviews the function and role of ACDA, the US agency responsible for formulating, advocating, negotiating, implementing and verifying effective arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament policies, in global arms control and nonproliferation.

The course features several prominent speakers whose presentations are open to the public. Lecturers include: Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, and former President of the World Bank; Laura Holgate, Vice President of the Russia/Newly Independent States Programs under the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and former head of the US Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program; and John Rhinelander, a leading expert on international law, arms control, expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and National Missile Defense, and former Undersecretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Also, Director Jim Fuller of the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security will give a speech on US-Russian cooperative activities to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

IGRSS was jointly launched by the UW and PNNL in September of 2000, with the objective of expanding UW programs for teaching, research, and outreach on global security issues from both global and regional perspectives. Since its inception, the Institute has been very active and has enjoyed strong support in its activities and funding from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Enrollment and interest in this quarter’s course by Graham have been high and IGRSS plans to offer the class next year.