November 9, 2007...7:48 pm
Russia and the CFE Treaty
Unless you follow Radio Free Europe or the foreign press, you might have missed the fact that the Russian Duma voted the other day to suspend the Conventional Forces in Europe agreement. Even if you had heard it, you might wonder whether it mattered. While the Treaty didn’t enter effect until 1992, it might easily be seen as a relic of the Cold War with little relevance in this day and age in which a storming of the Fulda Gap ranks near dead-last in our list of national security concerns. In essence, this Treaty established a level of parity between the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries (of course the Warsaw Pact dissolved between signature and ratification, but the Treaty lived on through changing membership) in a wide range of offensive conventional weapon systems such as tanks, attack helicopters, and armored personnel carriers.
However, it may be wise to look at the broader picture in terms of the ramifications and meaning of this action. The action was unanimous, which is, of course, a rare occurrence in any democratic state (no matter how fragile and violated its form of democracy may be.) It is true that the CFE is not among the highest priorities in US national security, but this action by the Duma is a signal. It is a signal of the dissatisfaction which a great many Russians feel with the way they are treated and perceived by the US and broader global community. The unfortunate fact is that, should we ignore the Russians, we may soon face a day when we wished we had a CFE Treaty in place.
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