SAIS launches new transatlantic program

WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) -- The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, known as SAIS, has announced that its Center for Transatlantic Relations has created the Program on Transatlantic Security and Industry. Jeffrey P. Bialos has been appointed a senior fellow at the center and will be the new program's director.

The program will focus on the evolving role of NATO, the future of coalition war fighting, the development of transatlantic war fighting capabilities, and the integration of transatlantic defense industries. It will also examine the impediments to transatlantic industrial cooperation in the areas of armaments, aerospace and defense -- ranging from export controls to industrial security and trade barriers -- and will explore innovative approaches to arming the coalition for the 21st century.

The new program will also sponsor a series of workshops and seminars on key issues, and will issue periodic policy papers and other publications. In addition, the program will focus on the prospect for cooperation in space, and on key policy goals leading up to the NATO Prague summit this fall.

Program Director Bialos served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Industrial Affairs in the Clinton administration, and had previously been special adviser to Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Stuart Eizenstat while serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration.

Since early 2001, Bialos has been a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a consultant in the aerospace and defense industry.

"We believe this program can make a useful contribution to transatlantic security relations as they evolve to meet new challenges," said Daniel S. Hamilton, SAIS research professor and director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations. "There are questions being raised about the future of NATO and coalition warfare, the risks of gradual de-coupling in the security area and the prospects of future U.S.-European security and armaments cooperation."