Cato Daily Dispatch for December 10, 2001
U.S., Russia Close on Arms Cut DealKosovo Assembly Opens for Business
Reaching for the Stars, Balancing the Books
U.S., Russia Close on Arms Cut Deal
The Washington Post reports that a deal between the United States and Russia to sharply reduce nuclear weapons is "just about done," and the two countries are now looking for ways to verify that they abide by the proposed limits, Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.
Powell, who is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin today, said discussions were focusing on how to apply verification measures included in the earlier START I and START II arms control treaties to the new limits proposed for offensive weapons.
The Bush administration has said it was willing to reach a written agreement extending these measures, such as mutual inspections and technical reconnaissance. Asked by reporters whether this agreement could take the shape of a formal treaty, a senior State Department official said today the administration was not ruling out any option.
In "Arms Control and Missile Defense: Not Mutually Exclusive," Charles V. Peña makes the case that the United States could offer deep cuts in its vast arsenal in exchange for Russia's renegotiation of the ABM treaty. This would allow a limited national missile defense system to be built without endangering relations with Russia.
Kosovo Assembly Opens for Business
Kosovo's first multiethnic legislative assembly in 13 years opened today amid tight security and hopes it will help bring lasting peace to the volatile southern Serbian province, according to the Associated Press.
The 120-member assembly brings together deputies from the ethnic Albanian population, a majority in Kosovo, and lawmakers from other ethnic groups, including 22 Serb lawmakers.
"This is a historical day for Kosovo," Hans Haekkerup, the top U.N. administrator of the province, told the legislators, who were searched before entering the building and had to walk through a metal detector to reach the chamber.
In "Kosovo's Contradictory Election," Foreign Policy Analyst Gary Dempsey writes that "according to a post-election report issued by the British Helsinki Human Rights Group, the growing movement of ethnic Albanians toward apathy on one hand, and hard-line parties on the other, is a response to the same underlying reality: Elections in Kosovo are a sham, and have more to do with foreign bureaucrats perpetuating their role than with the democratic rights of the people who live there."
Reaching for the Stars, Balancing the Books
The Washington Post reported this weekend that these are ominous times for NASA. Sept. 11 has changed national priorities, and sending people into space does not appear to be high on the government's agenda. A panel of experts recently criticized NASA for spending billions more than expected on the International Space Station. The space station may never be fully built, which has outraged NASA insiders as well as the United States' foreign partners.
All this has made people here at the Kennedy Space Center apprehensive. They worry that the NASA of the future may not share their enthusiasm for rocketing astronauts into orbit. They also worry that NASA's future administrator is a budget expert who speaks nary a word about the grand, romantic aspirations of the Space Age.
But Director of Regulatory Studies Edward Hudgins has praised President Bush's choice and said, "O'Keefe is what NASA needs right now, someone who understands budgets and organizations. I hope he will bring discipline and direction to the agency. Also I believe he will be open to radical changes that could help space enterprise in the long run."
In "Time to Privatize NASA," Hudgins writes: "Why are no regularly scheduled commercial spaceflights available for [Senator John] Glenn to book? Because no government agency that runs with the efficiency of the Pentagon and the U.S. Postal Service will ever realize the dream of commercially viable orbiting stations or moon bases."
Earlier this year, the Cato Institute held a one day conference on the commercialization of space and video of the event can be viewed online.
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