A Republican Case for Foreign Policy? American Conservatives and Nuclear Security in the Cold War’s Wake

This paper examines how the GOP debated nuclear security in the wake of the end of the Cold War. The achievement of the INF and START I Treaties under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush marked a watershed moment in US arms control. The collapse of the Soviet Union, however, raised a host of new nuclear threats, as reports emerged of the Union’s weak control over its nuclear arsenal. This period saw the Republican Party divided on arms control as it sought to develop a new policy towards nuclear security in the wake of the USSR’s collapse. Some Republicans, such as Senator Richard Lugar, played a crucial role in an ambitious program of international cooperation that would see the US aid the newly independent states of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). While Lugar’s efforts, exemplified by the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, became a hallmark of national security policy, opposition within the GOP soon arose. This opposition became particularly important when the Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994 and proceeded to challenge the Clinton administration’s foreign policy goals. Republican Senator Jesse Helms took the lead in challenging the Clinton administration, blocking the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, among others.