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December 21, 2005
36th Annual IFPA-Fletcher National Security Conference: “Implementing the New Triad: Nuclear & Non-Nuclear Forces in Twenty-First Century Deterrence"
Former Defense Secretary Robert NcNamara was one of almost 300 attendees of the 36th Annual IFPA-Fletcher National Security Conference held in the Grand Hyatt in Washington DC on December 14th and 15th. While the audience consisted of several top names in government, the private sector and the academe, the speaker list also consisted of prominent personalities, including General James Cartwright USMC and Commander of the US Strategic Command, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy and keynote speaker Hon. Ryan Henry, and Professor of Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government Dr. Ashton B Carter.
Organized by the Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis under the direction of Professor Robert Pfaltzgraff and co-sponsored by The Fletcher School’s International Security Studies Program, the yearly conference takes the opportunity to highlight a major current security issue occurring in the international setting. For instance, last year’s topic was on planning for and responding to threats to the US Homeland.
With the international community’s growing concern for weapons proliferation and terrorism, the conference paid close attention to these and other related topics. Additionally, it covered US nuclear policy and weapons protection programs, nuclear and non-nuclear requirements for regional contingencies, implementation of the New Triad, and long-term innovation and transformation strategies for the science-technology base.
According to the IFPA staff, the conference aimed to “examine operational requirements for bringing the three basic elements of the New Triad together. The New Triad consists of: (1) nuclear and non-nuclear offensive strike forces; (2) active and passive defenses, including missile defense; and (3) a revitalized and responsive R&D and defense-industrial infrastructure to enable the United States to adapt quickly to evolving threats.”
The conference consisted of speakers and panel discussions, with “Plan A being to provide a wide-range of people with diverse viewpoints in order to encourage the most effective conversation on these issues,” said Professor Pfaltzgraff.
Keynote speaker Hon. Ryan Henry introduced the topic by putting nuclear proliferation issues directly into the context of the new asymmetrical world we live in, expressing concern over the ease of obtaining many of the materials needed, and how difficult it is to oversee the transfer of this material.
Panel discussions then went on to hash out the ins and outs of recent nuclear weapons and materials policy, both in the US and internationally.
“Many of the panelists noted that debate had been lacking in the U.S. defense policy community with regard to the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review. They saw the 36th IFPA-Fletcher conference as an excellent opportunity to fill this gap, and hoped it would be the beginning of more sustained dialogue on the role of nuclear and non-nuclear forces in the 21st-century,” noted Pfaltzgraff.
On hand to help the conference run smoothly were several Fletcher students who had helped with the organization of the conference throughout the semester. And, as hoped, “it ran like a well-oiled machine,” said Fletcher Ph.D. student Andrea Dew.
By Kate Brodock, MALD ‘07
Posted by fletcher at December 21, 2005 09:38 AM
