Ambassadorial Lecture Series Featuring: Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.
“The Negotiation of the New START Treaty”
Feburary 8, 2011 at 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Lunch is $15 payable by cash or check on the day of the event.
Reservations are required.
Register on-line by February 3 by clicking here.
For more information call 865-974-0931.
The event will also be webcast by clicking here.
Ambassador Graham will discuss the New START treaty, which began in the Spring of 2009 following the Summit meeting between Presidents Obama and Medvedev. The new Treaty was negotiated to replace the START I treaty which was expiring by its terms on December 5th, 2009. Taking nearly a year to complete, it was signed by Presidents Obama and Medvedev in April, submitted to the Senate in June and after a highly contentious passage through the Senate was passed by the Senate on December 22nd, 2010 by a vote of 71-25.
Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. is the Executive Chairman of the Board of Lightbridge Corporation, a company which holds patents on a new type of nuclear power fuel based on thorium and which is located in McLean, Virginia. Lightbridge Corporation is a U.S. company listed on the NASDAQ, which has conducted its research and development work at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow.
In 2010, Ambassador Graham was appointed to the United Arab Emirates’ International Advisory Board, helping to guide that country’s nuclear energy program and hold it to the highest standards of safety, security, and non-proliferation. Ambassador Graham is also Chairman of the Board of Mexico Energy Corporation of Midland, Texas, and is a Board member of CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. of Vancouver, Canada.
Graham is internationally known as one of the leading authorities in the field of international arms control and non-proliferation agreements designed to limit and to combat the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. He served as a senior U.S. diplomat involved in the negotiation of every major international arms control and non-proliferation agreement in which the United States was involved during the period 1970-1997 including The Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (the Interim Agreement on Strategic Offensive Arms, the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty and the SALT II Treaty), The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (the START I Treaty and the START II Treaty), the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty extension (NPT), the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
In 1993, Ambassador Graham served as the Acting Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) and for seven months in 1994 served as the Acting Deputy Director. From 1994 through 1997, he served as the Special Representative of the President for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament, appointed by President Clinton and in this capacity led U.S. government efforts to achieve the permanent extension of the NPT in 1994 and 1995. He also served for 15 years as the general counsel of ACDA.
Ambassador Graham worked on the negotiation of The Chemical Weapon Convention and The Biological Weapons Convention. He drafted the implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention and managed the Senate approval of the ratification of the Geneva Protocol banning the use in war of chemical and biological weapons.
Ambassador Graham is also a widely published author in scholarly journals, major newspapers and has authored five books. Graham received an A.B. in 1955 from Princeton University and a J.D. in 1961 from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the Kentucky, the District of Columbia and the New York Bars and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ambassador Graham received the Trainor Award for Distinction in Diplomacy from Georgetown University in 1995; the 2006 World Order Under Law Award of the International Section of the American Bar Association; twice received the Distinguished Honor Award; twice the Superior Honor Award and the Meritorious Honor Award from ACDA. He also once received the Meritorious Honor Award from the Department of State.