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BSG Briefing on Capitol Hill

BSG Member Barry Kellman

On November 15, the Bipartisan Security Group (BSG) hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill entitled “International Policies to Reduce Biothreats.”  Former Chief US Weapons Inspector in Iraq David Kay moderated a panel comprised of BSG expert Dr. Barry Kellman and Partnership for Global Security Executive Director Dr. Kenneth Luongo, as they discussed various policies, challenges and recommendations for strengthening the prohibition regime on biological weapons. 

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BSG at the Reach to Space conference, George Washington University

Ambassador Robert Grey, Jr. argues for a legal regime in space, on a panel with Michael Cook of Hughes Network Systems and Steven Apfel of Boeing

BSG Director Robert Grey, Jr., and Program Associate Kevin Davis participated in the Reach to Space conference at George Washington University, November 12-13, 2007.

Ambassador Grey presented on the need for a legal regime in outer space on the panel entitled, "Space Commercialization in the Decade Ahead—Economic Risk or Opportunity?"

» Click here for Ambassador Grey's speech
» Click here for more information about the conference

BSG/GSI Events in Washington

On May 3 and 4, 2007, a delegation comprised of Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr., Chairman of the Bipartisan Security Group, Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, and Dr. Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, advocated timely policies on international security in the US Congress and to the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.


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» Click here for a photo gallery
» Click here for a PDF version of the report

Testimony Before the US Congress

On September 26, 2006, BSG Chairman Ambassador Thomas Graham and GSI President Jonathan Granoff testified at a Congressional Hearing on Weapons of Mass Destruction: Current Nuclear Proliferation Challenges, which was convened by the US House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations.

Dr. Hans Blix, Henry Sokolski, Dr. Frank von Hippel, and representatives of the Administration, also testified.

» Official Testimony Part I
(Includes statements by House Rep. Shays and Waxman, & Dr. Blix)

» Official Testimony Part II
(Includes statements by US Dep. Asst. Secretary of State Andrew Semmel, US Dep. Asst. Secretary of Defense Jack David, & Amb. Graham)

» Official Testimony Part III
(Includes statements by Jonathan Granoff, Baker Spring, & Henry Sokolski)


» Summary Report
» Testimony by Dr. Blix
» Testimony by Amb. Graham
» Testimony by Mr. Granoff

BSG and Stimson Center Convene Expert Panel on Space Weaponization

Mr. Krepon, Amb. Graham, Amb. Grey, Ms. Spaulding, Mr. Granoff, & Hon. Ed Markey

Washington, DC - On December 13, 2005, the Bipartisan Security Group and The Henry L. Stimson Center, in conjunction with the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation of the US House of Representatives, convened a panel discussion on Capitol Hill on the topic of The Security and Proliferation Implications of Space Weapons.

The keynote panelists included BSG Chairman Ambassador Thomas Graham and Michael Krepon, President emeritus of the Stimson Center.

The panel was co-chaired by BSG expert Suzanne Spaulding and GSI President Jonathan Granoff. Congressman Ed Markey and Christopher Shays, Co-Chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force, both participated in the event proceedings.

Amb. Graham's and Mr. Krepon's speeches were based upon their respective materials which are found below:

» Stimson Brief on Space Security or Space Weapons?
» Amb. Graham article on space in Arms Control Today
» Jonathan Granoff & Dr. Craig Eisendrath on Vision 2020
» View US Space Command's Vision for 2020
» Read article about event from Voice of America

Capitol Hill: Experts Review President Bush's Non-Proliferation Policies

Hon. Ed Markey, Amb. Henrik Salander, Jonathan Granoff, Hon. Chris Shays

In response to the President's non-proliferation proposals announced in February, the House Bipartisan Task Force on Non-Proliferation, in cooperation with the Global Security Institute's Bipartisan Security Group, hosted a high-level panel discussion on Capitol Hill on April 27, 2004 on the theme: 'Seven Sound Strategies? The President's Non-Proliferation Proposals.'

Following the panel, discussions were held with Members of Congress.

Addressing the crowd of House staffers, panelists Ambassador Henrik Salander, Secretary General of the recently launched Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Commission; Dr. Ivan Oelrich, a security analyst at the Federation of American Scientists; and Ambassador Jonathan Dean, an advisor on arms control and international security issues at the Union of Concerned Scientists, discussed the viability of the proposals in the context of the current state of the international non-proliferation regime. Ambassador Robert T. Grey, Jr., director of the Bipartisan Security Group, moderated the discussion.

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Law of the Sea opponents hurt US security
By Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. and Ben Friedman
International Herald Tribune
April 21, 2005

WASHINGTON In spite of the Bush administration's recent calls for quick passage, some conservatives are campaigning vigorously to block ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention, a treaty governing the use of the world's oceans, in the US Senate. That's worrisome because the convention, a treaty the United States has spent decades perfecting, is in America's, and the world's, interests and should be passed now.

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"Legitimacy" in International Affairs: A Response to John Bolton
By Benjamin Friedman
Bipartisan Security Group
March 11, 2004

Last November, John Bolton, the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, gave a speech entitled "'Legitimacy' In International Affairs: The American Perspective in Theory and Operation." The speech addresses the legitimacy of three aspects of US foreign policy - the authority for the war in Iraq, a new US-led nonproliferation effort called the Proliferation Security Initiative, and opposition to the International Criminal Court. Some points Bolton makes on these subjects are wrong, and this piece corrects those points. More fundamentally, however, Bolton's speech attacks the very idea of international norms. This paper is then also a brief defense of multilateralism.

» View PDF

Bush Should've Taken His Father's Advice on War
By Robert T. Grey, Jr.
Chicago Sun Times
December 13, 2003

In his memoir, A World Transformed, former President George Bush in discussing the Gulf War made the following observation: ''Trying to eliminate Saddam would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. There was no viable exit strategy we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that one hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in the bitterly hostile land.''

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