Strategic Trust-Building

Seizing the Moment
A One-Day Consultation on Breakthrough Measures to Build a New East-West Consensus on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament

The EastWest Institute, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, the British American Security Information Council, the Global Security Institute and other partner organizations will assemble leading officials, specialists, business leaders and other public figures to debate ideas for breakthroughs in policy.

Goals of the Consultation

To devise practical steps for the global community to break existing deadlocks in negotiations over controls on Weapons of Mass Destruction

1. To identify possible linkage between breakthrough issues and obstacles in single issues of WMD control (such as CW verification) and others that may seem unrelated (such as establishment of an international nuclear fuel bank).
2. To identify possible trade-offs between seemingly disparate areas of strategic policy and concessions on WMD breakthrough issues (such as the link between military uses of space and ratification of the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty)
3. To contribute to trust-building between the Euro-Atlantic community and Asian states on issues of WMD controls and related issues of strategic policy.

Confirmed Speakers

• Mr. Ban Ki-moon (South Korea)
• Dr. Henry Kissinger (USA)
• Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (Russia)
• General (ret.) Pan Zhenqiang (China)
• General Ved Malik (India)
• Dr. Hans Blix (Sweden)
• Ambassador Marco Antonio Suazo (Honduras)
• Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka)
• Ambassador Hassan Mashhadi (Iran)
• General (ret.) Ehsan Ul Haq (Pakistan)
• Ambassador Sumio Tanui (Japan)
• Dr. William Potter (USA)
• Ambassador Max Kampelman (USA)
• Mr. Teng Jianqun (China)
• Dr. Kanwal Sibal (India)
• Mr. Scott D. Sagan (USA)
• Mr. Michael Krepon (USA)
• Dr. Ron Huisken (Australia)
• Mr. Paul Ingram (UK)
• Dr. Waheguru Pal Sidhu (India)
• Dr. Greg Austin (Australia)
• Ambassador Sergio Duarte (Brazil)
• Ambassador Knut Langeland (Norway)
• Mr. Jean du Preez (South Africa)
• Ambassador Robert Grey Jr. (USA)
• Ambassador Adiyatwidi Adiwoso Asmady (Indonesia)
• Mr. Jonathan Granoff (USA)
• Ambassador Henrik Salander (Sweden)
• Ambassador Richard Butler (Australia)

On September 4, EWI Director Francis Finlay reported to the UN framework conference on counter-terorrism in New York on the subject of the Institute's work with Russian firm Norilsk Nikel and the Russian government.  Russia's G8 Initiative promoting public-private partnerships to counter terrorism received  overwhelming support at the special session of  the UN framework conference in New York on reviewing  anti-terrorism strategy. The EastWest Institute has been engaged in this initiative since its launch in 2006 during Russia's G8 Presidency.

At the session Mr Finlay and the Director of EWI’s Moscow Office Vladimir Ivanov presented on EWI’s experience and success in developing international cooperation, between private companies and governments, through the facilitation of informal working groups. The panel, chaired by Russia's UN chief of mission Vitaly Churkin, also included the EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, UNICRI Director Dr. Sandro Calvani and representatives of Citigroup, Finmeccanica and the German Union of Industrialists. Discussion engaging an audience of about 100 diplomats, experts and media showed that a networked response has been globally recognized as a key strategy to fight the terrorist threat. The conference demonstrated that efforts to overcome existing barriers to cooperation in this area between governments, businesses and civil society groups are growing.

Can the major global policy think-tanks of the world work together to address the challenges facing humanity? From July 14-17, the East West Institute convened more than a dozen thinktanks from Beijing to Brasilia to address this timely question. The think-tank leaders gathered in Oxford, England, where they developed an eight-point plan for collaborative action and agreed to form a “Global Leadership Consortium” to implement this plan.

Even before the meeting began, a series of teleconferences between the participants made clear that think-tanks around the world were facing a similar challenge of “going global.” For this reason, Mark Gerzon and Dale Pfeifer, who coordinated EWI’s global leadership programs, encouraged EWI to explore convening a worldwide think-tank network. The goal of the GLC is to serve as a learning and action network of solutionsoriented leaders and their institutions to address the new reality that no single nation — and no single think-tank — can be an effective global problem-solver. The difference between a single institute undertaking this effort versus a network of well-established and highly respected partners doing so, may ultimately make the difference between success and failure.

Chinese and American security experts discussed U.S.-China confidence-building, non-proliferation and WMDs, and energy security in Sudan, Angola, and Nigeria.

The EWI delegation also met with China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi and Vice Minister Zhang Zhijun of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, and engaged in a discussion with the Chinese foreign ministry on the future of Asian and European security. In addition, EWI delegates attended the first U.S.-China Forum on Sustainable Energy and the Environment, which was co-organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy and the Energy Research Institute of China’s National Development and Reform Commission and supported by EWI.

The first U.S.-China High Level Security Dialogue was held in June 2007 in Beijing.

The EastWest Institute’s 5th Worldwide Security Conference (WSC5), held in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the World Customs Organization, was a great success. WSC5 gathered around 750 leaders from business, civil society, governments and academia at the World Customs Organization Headquarters in Brussels from February 19 through February 21, 2008.

Mr Cemil Çiçek, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, delivered the keynote address, followed by the opening speeches of General Ehsan Ul Haq and Ambassador Akio Suda. Other speakers included Anatoly Safonov, Gilles de Kerchove, Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, Sadig Al Mahdi, and Jeroen van der Veer.

Workshops discussed individual issues relevant to the security of people, economies, and infrastructure. Some of these would be carried on after the conference as working groups within EWI's Worldwide Security Network.

Day 3 of the conference was an innovative "horizon-thinking" exercise, where the participants in Brussels contributed to a set of global seminars on topics such as the weaponization of science, energy security, and religion and human security. This session constructed a vision of "a day in the future," identifying channels to overcome political obstacles, mistrust, and differing perceptions.

WSC is the centerpiece of an ambitious and pioneering initiative, the EWI Worldwide Security Network, that works to build a global Track Two framework to counter security threats and bridge current divides between the new East and the West. The Network provides alternative and discreet communication channels among public officials, business leaders, and civil society representatives as well as within regional and international organizations where political obstacles, mistrust, and differing perceptions often hinder such communication. EWI's network will build upon strong individual and institutional structures that already exist in order to create an effective and overarching framework.

Dr. Mark Chandler led a seminar at Columbia University to promote public-private collaboration on WMD proliferation and bioterrorism issues.

The EastWest Institute, the Center for International Business Education and   Research (CIBER) and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS) hosted Dr. Mark Chandler's lecture entitled "Private Sector Coordination with Governments in Response to the Threat of Bio-Terrorism" at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, on October 18, 2007. Mr. Brandon Declet, Counsel to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security also presented. The seminar was intended to promote collaboration between leaders and experts on issues surrounding WMD proliferation and to bring the public and private sectors closer together in response to the threat of bioterrorism. Stuart Gottlieb of SIPA moderated the Q&A session.

BIOS:

Mark Chandler

Chairman and CEO, Biophysical

In 1982 Mark Chandler founded Inland Laboratories Inc. to provide plant and bacterial toxins to the medical research community. As President and Chief Executive Officer of Inland, Dr. Chandler received the KPMG High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1987. He later co-founded Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ:LMNX), which develops, manufactures and markets innovative biological testing technologies to clinical researchers. Chandler served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Luminex until 2002, when he formed Rules-Based Medicine to further identify and develop multi-analyte testing protocols. He now leads Biophysical Corporation, which makes this testing directly available to consumers.

Chandler established the Foundation for a Healthier World to apply the large-scale multi-analyte profiles created by Rules-Based Medicine to healthcare issues in the developing world. Supported by Chandler and major corporate contributors, the Foundation will also undertake disease surveillance and epidemiological studies to further the understanding of infectious diseases worldwide.

Chandler received his doctorate in immunology from UT Southwestern Medical School. Chandler is a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club and The National Center for Genome Resources.

Brandon D. Declet

Counsel to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security

Mr. Declet serves as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security which has oversight over the Department of Homeland Security. In this capacity, he is responsible for the development of legislative, oversight, and policy initiatives with an emphasis in the areas of intelligence and counterterrorism. He was previously an Intelligence Research Specialist for the Counter Terrorism Bureau of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and an adjunct professor at the John C. Whitehead School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Seton Hall University. He also served as a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), specializing in strategic planning, military transformation and international security. Mr. Declet has a BA from Union College and a JD from the Fordham University School of Law; he is currently pursuing his LLM in national security law at the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Stuart Gottlieb

Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Stuart Gottlieb is a lecturer in the Department of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he teaches courses on American foreign policy and terrorism. Dr. Gottlieb is also a senior partner of Prides Crossing Executive Communication, LLC, a speechwriting and communications consulting firm based in New York City.

Prior to joining SIPA in 2003, Gottlieb worked for five years in the United States Senate, first as senior foreign policy advisor to Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, and subsequently as policy advisor and chief speechwriter for Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. He has also worked on a number of political campaigns, among which include New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s reelection campaign in 1997. family.

Gottlieb holds a BA in political science and journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and two MA degrees and a PhD in international relations from Columbia University. He has held prior teaching positions at Brown University and Yale University. Gottlieb’s research interests include terrorism and American foreign policy.

Participants discussed the importance of improved bi-lateral relations and the formation of a common EU policy towards Russia. Peter Mandelson, the Commissioner of the European Union for Trade, stated that "both parties should seek to make these relations bigger than any individual issue". The conference was attended by more than 300 people.

Participants crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined roles for the Russian-Western European Diaspora.

On October 1-2, 2007, EWI co-sponsored the first European-Russian Forum in Brussels. Held in the European Parliament headquarters, the Forum was attended by more than 150 representatives of the Russian-speaking community living outside Russia in Europe as well as high-level Russian and EU officials, MPs, foreign policy experts, religious leaders and entrepreneurs. The two-day series of plenary sessions and workshops crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined key roles for the 10 million Russian-Western European diaspora in facilitating strategic partnership between the European Union and the Russian Federation.

On the first day of the Forum, EWI’s Founder, President and CEO John Edwin Mroz presented his views on Russia’s capacity to play a role of a major problem-solver in multilateral cooperation in Europe to address the 21st security challenges such as political radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism, energy, migration issues, cross-border cultural gaps and regional conflicts. He specifically highlighted the Russian G-8 initiative on public-private partnerships to counter terrorism and the need to further promote specific model projects in this area such as “countering of precious metals trafficking” advanced by Norilsk Nickel company, “global remittances” led by Citigroup and others.

EWI’s upcoming 5th Worldwide Security Conference in February 2008 at the World Customs Organization is EWI's next milestone in making such initiatives a vital part of its worldwide security network.

EWI's Ortwin Hennig, Greg Austin and Vladimir Ivanov served as panelists for the workshop on “EU-Russia Political Dialogue and Security Priorities in Europe” and presented EWI’s experience and recommendations for global security and conflict prevention issues.

The recommendations resulting from the Forum will be submitted to Russian and European government officials ahead of the EU-Russia Summit scheduled for the end of October in Portugal. Forum participants agreed to set up permanent expert groups, under the aegis of the European-Russian Forum, to tackel political dialogue and security issues, as well as the protection of human rights, migration, economic cooperation and to help consolidate Russian-speaking communities. EWI will be an active player in theese working groups, engaging the Forum and its participants in order to broaden its worldwide security network.

EWI's President and CEO John Edwin Mroz led a high-level U.S. delegation for private talks and meetings with top government officials in China, including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (l). The delegation was hosted by the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS).

The EWI delegation included General James L. Jones USMC (ret.), President and CEO, Institute for Energy, US Chamber of Commerce; General Lance Lord (ret.), former Commander, Air Force Space Command; Ambassador Henry A, Crumpton (ret.), EWI Distinguished Fellow and former Coordinator for Counterterrorism for the US State Department; Mr. Francis Finlay, EWI Board member and Chairman and CEO, Clay Finlay, Inc., and Mr. Joel Cowan, EWI Board member and President, Habersham & Cowan.

The delegation met with representatives of leading Chinese think tanks, including CIIS and the Institute for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University of China. The subjects discussed included energy security, militarization of outer space, international stabilization of Afghanistan, and controls on weapons of mass destruction.

In Beijing the EWI delegation also met with Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, and Vice Minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhang Zhijun.

The dialogue is part of EWI's broader engagement with Asia, particularly China. EWI has a distinguished history as a trusted convener in Track 2 diplomacy.