Leadership and Policy Innovation From Clinton to Bush: Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Throughout the Cold War there were longstanding efforts to control the spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) through extensive arms control, deterrence, and defense programs. Since then counterproliferation efforts by the U.S. and international community have accelerated. Given the attention to counterproliferation in the last decade, how effective was the leadership provided by President Clinton and his Secretaries of Defense, Aspin, Perry and Cohen, in providing innovative and effective policies for countering the proliferation of WMD?

Comparing the cases of U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and U.S. and U.N. efforts in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Joseph R. Cerami examines patterns of organizational leadership and policy innovation in the development and implementation of WMD policy initiatives. Rather than criticize the framework of American and international political institutions, this leadership perspective draws important insights on the capabilities of institutions to further U.S. and international goals and objectives in security policymaking. In doing so, the book argues that the U.S.’s role and the roles of its internal government agencies are most significant in international affairs.

Smartly and appealingly positioned at the intersection of theory and practice, Cerami’s book crafts a new perspective in international relations and public administration offering great potential for understanding as well as designing policy innovations to counter the proliferation of WMD in the 21st century.

Joseph R. Cerami is a Senior Lecturer in National Security Policy and Director of the Public Service Leadership Program for the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. His last U.S. Army assignment was as the Chairman of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA, from 1998 to 2001. From 1993 to 1998, he served on the faculty there as Director of International Security Studies. He was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, where he taught International Relations, and Politics and Government.