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November 20, 2003

Kyrgyz Republic’s President Askar Akaev Awarded ISSA Gold Star Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress

The Head-of-State of the Kyrgyz Republic, President Askar Akaev, is to be honored with the International Strategic Studies Association’s highest recognition — the Gold Star Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress — for his unique and positive rôle in nationbuilding under difficult circumstances, and for his rôle of ensuring stability and progress in Central Asia.

The International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA) is the parent organization of the Global Information System (GIS) and the Defense & Foreign Affairs publications.

In announcing the Award — which is symbolized by a gold decoration created originally by Garrard, the Crown Jeweller, of London — ISSA President Gregory Copley quoted from the citation of the Award:

“The ISSA Gold Star Medal is meant to recognize levels of leadership which far exceed the norms of national management. In this regard, President Akaev has demonstrated a breadth of vision, compassion and skill which has enabled the successful establishment of the modern state of the Kyrgyz Republic.”

“As a scientist, Dr Akaev has ensured that the Kyrgyz State has placed a high priority on education, international dialog and regional and global responsibility. His devotion to learning has also meant that he has become an authority on the origins, aspirations and achievements throughout history of the Kyrgyz People, and their central rôle in the great movements of humanity which helped determine the political shape of both Europe and Asia over the past two-and-a-half millennia. Through this understanding and through his scholarship, Dr Akaev has been able to coherently contribute to the sense of Kyrgyz national purpose and pride.”

“Dr Akaev has demonstrated a determination to instill pride, hope and purpose in the Kyrgyz People which has provided his landlocked nation — which is without an obvious abundance of marketable mineral resources — with the tools to confront the appeal of radical terrorism and insurgency which has swept much of Central Asia.”

“As well, Dr Akaev has helped his democratic Government and society to undertake with great skill the balance of relations with the Kyrgyz Republic’s powerful and important neighbors — the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — with the requirement for the State to engage in meaningful relations with the states of Europe, Asia and the Americas, as well as, for example, the Islamic world.”

“This ISSA Gold Star Medal which is awarded to President Akaev is also meant to recognize and encourage the Kyrgyz People for their great achievement in building the modern, independent State which they now inhabit. In this sense, the Medal is also an award to the nation, the citizens and natural beauty of which are its great resources and hope for the future.”

Pres. Akaev has advised the Association that he would accept the honor, and an investiture ceremony will take place in New York on December 1, 2003.

The Gold Star Medal by the International Strategic Studies Association is specifically designated for Heads of State or Heads of Government. The Association does not present the Award annually, but only when it feels that there is a special cause for such recognition.

Republica Srpska President Dragan Cavic Awarded 2003 ISSA Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress

Washington, DC, November 1, 2003 — The International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), the Washington-based, worldwide organization for strategic policy officials which produces the Defense & Foreign Affairs publications, on October 20, 2003, announced that Dragan Cavic, the President of Republica Srpska, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, had been awarded the Association’s highest recognition, the Gold Star Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress.

The award was made, to some extent, to draw attention to the terrorism crisis which is building in the Balkans, and particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Significantly, because the developing crisis also reflects the fact that many of the sponsors of terrorism in the region had originally received support from the former US Clinton Administration, there have been many attempts made to deny the re-emergence of the regional terrorist threat, and its potential impact on the West.

At the same time, Pres. Cavic has not only worked toward addressing the terrorist crisis, but also at ensuring that the 1995 Dayton Accords’ goals — aimed at bringing reconciliation to Bosnia-Herzegovina — could be achieved. Significantly, however, the Dayton Accords stipulated the appointment by the European Union (EU) of a “High Representative” to govern the overall Bosnia-Herzegovina entity, supported by a US-appointed “Deputy High Representative”. The present High Representative is former British Liberal Party leader Paddy Ashdown, who was appointed despite his earlier track record of bias on the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. The current Deputy High Representative is US Amb. Donald Hays, who also took the post despite his own involvement as a supporter of the Clinton Administration policies on Bosnia. In other words, both took their posts determined to support their previous positions and not to ensure an unbiased approach to the Dayton Accords.

As a result, both have vested interests in denying the reality of the new terrorist build-up (which has been extensively documented by Defense & Foreign Affairs and by NATO intelligence services) and to protect the reputation of the former Clinton Administration officials who supported, for example, Bosnian Islamist leader Alija Izetbegovic, who was subsequently shown to have been involved not only with al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, but also with Islamists connected with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

As a result, both Ashdown and Hays have steadfastly attempted to work against Pres. Cavic and toward the elimination of the Bosnian Serb state, Republica Srpska, which was established by the Dayton Accords. The leader of Alija Izetbegovic’s political party even said, at Izetbegovic’s funeral in Sarajevo on October 21, 2003, that the Islamists agreed to the formation of Republica Srpska under duress, and would now set about correcting that mistake. Despite this, Ashdown and Hays continued to support the Islamists and to attempt to curtail the Republica Srpska Government.

The ISSA Gold Star Medal was very consciously awarded to recognize Pres. Cavic’s achievements under conditions of real threats to his person and to his state. It also recognizes the fact that the terrorist threat being addressed by Pres. Cavic is real and also concerns the security of Western Europe, and that greater international attention on the issue is required.

The medal, which is not awarded every year, was awarded to Pres. Cavic because of his unique contributions in the face of enormous obstacles. These contributions include:

1. Ensuring, to the maximum degree possible and to a greater extent than perhaps any other leader in the region, the implementation of and compliance with the terms of the 1995 Dayton Accords which ended the Bosnia-Herzegovina civil war;

2. His significant rôle in the war against terrorism, in which Republica Srpska has found itself on the front-line, facing a substantial and increasing burden of infiltration and activity by terrorists related to al- Qaida and other groups and state sponsors;

3. His contributions to the reconciliation and wellbeing of peoples of all faiths in the territory of Rep- ublica Srpska, particularly in the face of deliberate provocations by significant officials and groups anxious to continue to divide the region along communal and religious lines;

4. His pioneering work in helping to bring his area of Bosnia-Herzegovina into line with NATO and European Union standards of security, democracy, political transparency and accountability. This included preparing the Armed Forces of Republica Srpska for civilian command and control within the context of Bosnia & Herzegovina in such a way that they could meet NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) requirements, and ensuring maximum cooperation with NATO’s SFOR Stabilization Force in the region; and

5. His commitment to working diligently and transparently with the international legal community, and particularly the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in resolving the painful outstanding issues surrounding war crimes committed in Bosnia- Herzegovina during the country’s civil war.

Gregory R. Copley, President of ISSA, said: “This Award was made after extensive research into President Cavic’s work, including considerable on-the-ground observations, and after consulting with a number of very trusted and senior peoples within the North Atlantic Alliance and the governments of other states. The respect for President Cavic and the integrity with which he and a significant number of dedicated elected officials have brought Republica Srpska to the point of social, political and economic recovery, has been considerable.”

“It is well-known that a number of officials, both in neighboring areas of Bosnia & Herzegovina and among the international community overseeing the Dayton Accords, have long entertained preconceptions which are implacably hostile to the Bosnian Serbs. President Cavic and his colleagues have, nonetheless, persisted in attempting to build the new state of Republica Srpska in such a way that grounds for communal hostility are removed. Indeed, Republica Srpska, which was intended to be constrained by the Dayton Accords, has enthusiastically demonstrated that it has complied with those accords, and has set an example which has not been matched.”

“This ISSA Award is intended to draw international attention to the exceptionally positive work already undertaken by President Cavic and his colleagues — who are also recognized by this Award — and to ensure that he has the freedom and support to continue it. We are highly conscious of the fact that there are officials outside Republica Srpska who, in supporting other communal groups within Bosnia & Herzegovina, are attempting to diminish the positive results in Republica Srpska and reinforce the communal hatreds of the civil war.”

“At this time, however, Republica Srpska is a vital bulwark in the intelligence and security war against terrorism, and President Cavic and his team of elected and appointed officials must be encouraged and assisted in this process.”

The Association this year plans to make two other presentations of its highest award, the Gold Star Medal for Oustanding Contributions to Strategic Progress. These would be announced in the coming weeks, both to Muslim leaders in different continents.

It is hoped that the personal investiture of the Gold Star Medal to President Cavic would take place before the end of 2003 or in early 2004.

The Award has, in the past, been made to a wide range of leaders from around the world, including former US Secretary of State Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.; former US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger; Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga; Pakistan President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq; Nigerian President Ibrahim B. Babangida; British Minister of State for Defence Sir Geoffrey Pattie; former Egyptian Defence Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Abdelhalim Abou-Ghazala; US Senator John Tower; and numerous others.

Former US Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger

ISSA Names Former US Defense Secretary Weinberger as Recipient of 2000 Gold Star Award

Washington DC, April 20, 2000 — Former United States Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger was today named as recipient of the International Strategic Studies Association’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress for 2000. The Award was made to highlight the work of global importance which Secretary Weinberger has undertaken for several decades, but particularly including his service as Secretary of Defense under US President Ronald Reagan from 1980 to 1987.

“The Association felt that it was important to recognize the many years of work which Mr Weinberger has undertaken, and continues to undertake from his very public position now as Chairman of Forbes magazine,” ISSA President Gregory Copley said today. “Mr Weinberger has always been an outstanding example of someone who has placed civic duty above personal interests, from the time he left law school to enlist in the US Army as a private, rising through service in World War II to the rank of captain in the Pacific campaign, and through the post-war years. His later service to the community, in part as a highly-effective state legislator and public official in California, led to Federal US appointments, including a Cabinet post, in the Nixon Administration.”

“Rarely has an individual contributed so widely as Caspar Weinberger to the strategic interests of his or her country,” Mr Copley said. “From the ISSA perspective, however, it was Mr Weinberger’s contribution to ensuring a responsible rôle for the United States in achieving a stable world balance which attracted our attention. The international balance is today in a delicate condition, but it would have been far less stable but for the efforts of Mr Weinberger.” Mr Weinberger will officially receive the Award — which comes in the form of the Association’s Gold Star medal, made by Garrard, the Crown Jewellers, of London — at the Association’s major conference, Strategy2000: the Global Strategic Forum, on June 20, 2000, in Washington DC.

The Gold Star Award is the Association’s highest decoration, and is usually reserved for heads-of-state or heads-of-government, and is rarely given to others. ISSA is a worldwide non-governmental organization (NGO) formed in 1982 to bring together senior national and international security officials from as many countries as possible. The Association is based in the Washington DC area. The Association has periodically recognized key world leaders for their actions in helping to shape a more stable and productive global environment. Its regular Strategy conference — now known as the Global Strategic Forum — has a series of intense, off-the-record workshops to help national leaders understand, and cope with, emerging strategic problems.

Exiled King Demands Role in Bringing Peace to Rwanda

Washington DC, October 11, 1998: — King Kigeli V, the King of Rwanda who had been exiled by Belgian colonial authorities from his country when he left to ask the United Nations to help win independence for Rwanda, has demanded a role in bringing an end to communal violence and genocide in his country, it was announced today in Washington DC.

King Kigeli, who had originally warned the UN and the Organization for African Unity of the impending genocide in Rwanda in 1994, made the call at the International Strategic Studies Association’s (ISSA) closed-door conference, Strategy’98: The Global Strategic Forum, in Washington DC this past week.

The King had been at the conference to receive the ISSA Gold Medal for his humanitarian work in trying to prevent the Rwandan genocides. He said, in his acceptance speech, that the present Rwandan Administration had asked him informally to return to the country, but would not overturn the constitution — put in place by the Belgians — which prohibited his entry to the country and abolished his position and citizenship.

“I have always been ready to return to my homeland and do whatever is necessary to save my country,” he said. “This I have made clear again and again. But still, the so-called constitution to which the present administration of Vice-President Major-General Paul Kagame nominally subscribes, expressly forbids my return to my homeland. It expressly declares both me and my position to be non-existent.”

The King said: “I tonight call on General Kagame and his administration to allow my return to Rwanda as King of my People, so that we may put the question of the fate of Rwanda, and the issue of a new constitution which may protect us all, squarely before the population in internationally-supervised plebiscites. General Kagame, as a Rwandan politician and leader who sees the need for reconciliation between all our peoples, can and must put the interests of the entire Rwandan population ahead of short-term political interests.”

The speech, which was prepared in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda, and delivered by a translator in English, was made before an audience of senior government and military leaders from 22 countries, in Washington DC for the Strategy conference. Several US Congressmen were also in the audience.

One, Congressman Jim Saxton (Republican, New Jersey), a member of the House National Security Committee and Chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, also received an ISSA award. He said, in a message to the King after the speech, that he expressed his “admiration for your efforts”, and offered “my strong support for the goals you are attempting to achieve for the Rwandan people”.

Congressman Saxton said: “Your efforts are, I believe, the first serious steps toward bringing a solution to the protracted Rwandan problem, in such a way that the interests of accountable democracy can be served, and the rights of minorities protected. You have my full support in this regard, and you have my support in your efforts to be able to return to your homeland to take your rightful place in solving the Rwandan problem.”

He added that “many people in the United States and its Congress are now watching your efforts and supporting your case for a resolution of the Rwandan problems”.

The King noted in his speech that petitions from all sectors of the Rwandan communities, from both Hutu and Tutsi leaders, both inside Rwandan and abroad, had requested that he return to Rwanda to assist in unifying the country, which is basically split along ethnic lines (Hutu and Tutsi).

He said: “When the Hutu are in power, the Tutsi live — or die — in fear. When the Tutsi are in power, the Hutu life in fear. In this dilemma of equally unacceptable options, we must search for a better path.”

“I do not seek my return, or the restoration of the Crown, as an end in itself. My sole goal for Rwanda is peace above all,” he said. He also urged the United States and the international community to “stop playing around the edges of the Rwandan problem” and to consult with Rwandan Elders, who know the country best.

The King received a standing ovation from the officials present for the Awards dinner.

King Kigeli was elected to the Rwandan throne by the traditional elders of the country after his brother, King Mutara III, had died mysteriously whilst receiving an inoculation from a Belgian doctor, before a scheduled trip to the UN in 1959 to plead for Rwandan independence.

ISSA Names US Congressman Jim Saxton of New Jersey as Recipient of 1998 Award

Washington DC, August 21, 1998: — US Congressman Jim Saxton (Republican, New Jersey) was today named as recipient of the International Strategic Studies Association’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress for 1998. This year’s ISSA Award is shared with another US Congressman, Bill McCollum (Republican, Florida).

The Award was made jointly to highlight the work which both Representatives did to create and support the work of the US House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. Rep. Saxton is now the Chairman of the Task Force, and Rep. McCollum was the founding Chairman.

“The Association felt that it was important to recognize the many years of work which Congressman Saxton and Congressman McCollum have put into ensuring that the US legislature has a strong understanding of what turns out to be the most significant strategic factors currently bearing on global stability,” ISSA President Gregory Copley said today.

“It is very largely as a result of their work that the US Congress is, for example, properly able to independently and calmly weigh the impact of the terrorist attacks on the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania. If the US is to maintain credibility and leadership in world strategic affairs at this time, it will very largely be determined by how it reacts to these latest outrages.”

The two Congressmen will officially receive the Award — which comes in the form of the Association’s Silver Star medal, made by Garrard, the Crown Jewellers, of London — at the Association’s major conference, Strategy’98: the Global Strategic Forum, on October 6, in Washington DC.

ISSA is a worldwide non-governmental organization (NGO) formed in 1982 to bring together senior national and international security officials from as many countries as possible. The Association is based in the Washington DC area.

Earlier, ISSA announced that this year’s recipient of its Gold Star Award for Humanitarian Contributions was King Kigeli V, of Rwanda. King Kigeli — who will also be at the October 6 reception to receive his award — consistently warned the world of the genocide which was to engulf his country. “Clearly, had the King’s warnings to the United Nations and others been heeded, we would have seen a dramatic reduction in in the loss of life which occurred in Central Africa over the past few years,” Copley said.

The Association has periodically recognized key world leaders for their actions in helping to shape a more stable and productive global environment. Its regular Strategy conference — now known as the Global Strategic Forum — has a series of intense, off-the-record workshops to help national leaders understand, and cope with, emerging strategic problems.

Both Congressman Saxton and Congressman McCollum addressed last year’s Strategy forum in Washington DC.

ISSA Names US Congressman Bill McCollum of Florida as Recipient of 1998 Award

Washington DC, August 11, 1998: — US Congressman Bill McCollum (Republican, Florida) was today named as recipient of the International Strategic Studies Association’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress for 1998. This year’s ISSA Award is shared with another US Congressman, Jim Saxton (Republican, New Jersey). The Award was made jointly to highlight the work which both Representatives did to create and support the work of the US House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.

Earlier, ISSA announced that this year’s recipient of its Gold Star Award for Humanitarian Contributions was King Kigeli V, of Rwanda. King Kigeli — who will also be at the October 6 reception to receive his award — consistently warned the world of the genocide which was to engulf his country. “Clearly, had the King’s warnings to the United Nations and others been heeded, we would have seen a draÅmatic reduction in in the loss of life which occurred in Central Africa over the past few years,” Copley said.

Both Congressman Saxton and Congressman McCollum addressed last year’s Strategy forum in Washington DC.

ISSA Names Exiled Rwandan King as Recipient of 1998 Humanitarian Award

Washington DC, June 11, 1998: — King Kigeli V of Rwanda, who has been in exile since 1960 since the then-Belgian colonial power overthrew him, has been named as the recipient of the 1998 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress Through Humanitarian Achievement by the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA). King Kigeli was the sole voice warning the international community of the impending genocide in Rwanda before the atrocities which decimated the country.

This is the second time ISSA has presented the Award for Humanitarian Achievement to an African. Last year, this Award was presented to Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the also-exiled Crown Council of Ethiopia, for his work on behalf of refugees from the fighting in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Association is a worldwide non-governmental organization (NGO) made up of senior officials involved in national security and international security policy.

King Kigeli will officially receive the Award — which comes in the form of the Association’s Gold Star medal, made by Garrard, the Crown Jewellers, of London — at the Association’s major conference, Strategy’98: the Global Strategic Forum, on October 6, in Washington DC.

King Kigeli V assumed the throne of Rwanda after his brother, King Mutara III, died mysteriously while receiving an injection from a Belgian Government doctor in Rwanda in 1959. King Mutara had been preparing to visit the United Nations in New York to secure his country’s independence from Belgium, and had undergone the immunization injection at the insistence of Belgian colonial authorities.

When King Kigeli assumed the throne, he, too, continued to work toward independence, traveling to Kinshasa in 1961 for meetings with UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold who was visiting the region. The Belgian authorities took the opportunity to overthrow the monarchy, and to issue a ban on the King’s return to his homeland. The subsequent outgoing constitution which the Belgian authorities imposed on Rwanda before their departure included a clause which forever forbade the King’s return to his home, and revoking his citizenship.

Despite Belgian opposition, the King went to the UN in New York in 1960, and the General Assembly passed Resolution 1579(XV) and 1580(XV) on December 20, 1960, and Resolution 1605(XV) on April 21, 1961, recommending that Belgium, as the Trust Power on control of Rwanda, fulfill three conditions before granting independence to Rwanda. These were: Repatriate all refugees; allow the King’s return to Rwanda, and release all political prisoners.

None of these provisions were respected by Belgium.

The King, often in conditions of abject poverty, continued his work abroad to bring representative government back to Rwanda, and to call world attention to the ongoing plight of his countrymen. Today, he is seen as one of the few figures who can mediate and equally represent the two main warring factions in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. As a result, there is a growing movement for his return to Rwanda and for a repeal of the constitution — which has never, in its various forms, been ratified by a popular vote — which forbids his return.

He has, on numerous occasions, put detailed and reasoned papers to the UN and other bodies to bring attention to impending or current problems in Rwanda, and his calls to the UN in the early 1990s to forestall a genocidal collapse in the country were ignored.

ISSA has yet to name the recipients of its other categories in this year’s Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress. These will be announced in the coming month.

“We are extremely happy that His Majesty has agreed to accept this honor,” Gregory Copley, the President of ISSA, said today. “King Kigeli’s work, undertaken through great personal suffering, has for too long been ignored. It is important that he is now finally being recognized by a worldwide community of national and international policymakers.”

Ethiopia's Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Recognized For Humanitarian Efforts on Behalf of "Divided Peoples"

London, August 8, 1997 — Ethiopia's Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie, one of the heirs to the oldest continuous monarchical line in the world, was today named as the recipient of the International Strategic Studies Association's Silver Star Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress Through Humanitarian Achievement. The Award was made, the Association has said, to recognize the Prince's efforts to aid Ethiopian refugees around the world, and to heal the communal rifts between the different peoples of Ethiopia while at the same time trying to ease their economic conditions.

“Prince Ermias has undertaken a tireless schedule of traveling throughout Africa, Europe and the Americas to help highlight the ongoing plight of Ethiopian people, inside and outside their country,” Gregory Copley, ISSA President said today. “He has just completed a trip to Southern and Eastern Africa where he has met with six heads of state. But what is less well-known is the fact that he met with groups of Ethiopian refugees on that trip — as with most of his traveling — and took direct action to help ease their plight and the often difficult legal conditions under which they suffer.”

“ISSA recognizes great contributions to strategic progress in the fields of political-military leadership and technology, but this year, for the first time, the Awards recognize the great strategic benefits of humanitarian healing work,” Copley said. “Prince Ermias, who is also President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, the body which will decide who will be the next Emperor of Ethiopia, has been able to use the undoubted prestige, authority and respect of some 3,000 unbroken years of the Ethiopian crown to give comfort to all Ethiopians, regardless of their ethnic or communal group, or their political orientation.”

ISSA has made no awards since 1991, largely because of the instability in the world situation. In 1997, in addition to the Award to Prince Ermias, the Association recognized former US Secretary of State and NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Alexander M. Haig, and former US Undersecretary of Defense Dr Paul Kaminski, one of the “fathers of stealth technology”. Those Awards were announced at the end of July.

In accepting the Award, Prince Ermias said: “It is extremely fortunate that, at this still-troubled time in my country's long history, the Crown of Ethiopia is able to be totally separate from politics and therefore able to provide a rallying point for people. The long history of the Ethiopian Crown is being used now to help draw attention to the plight of Ethiopians inside and outside the country, so that we can finally end the decades of communal strife and civil war; so that we can help feed and clothe Ethiopians and offer them the hope of a better life. And so that Ethiopia can once again be the beacon of hope to Africans and people around the world that they can unite in a common, positive cause.”

The International Strategic Studies Association, a tax-exempt, non-profit educational foundation, was formed originally in the United States, but now has members around the world. Membership is restricted to those involved professionally in national security policy, practice or studies.

The ISSA Awards in 1997 has been formalized, for the first time, as medals, designed and crafted by Garrard, the Crown Jewellers, of London. Garrard, which has been involved in making state decorations for many years — including the British Crown Jewels — has joined ISSA and Defense & Foreign Affairs publications as a sponsor of the annual Strategy conferences and the Awards Dinner.

The three recipients will join with senior military and political officials from several dozen countries at a gala black-tie Awards Dinner held during the big Strategy'97 conference on September 22, 23 and 24. The Conference and dinner will be held at the DuPont Plaza Hotel, Washington DC.


Former US Secretary of State and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.	Former US Under-Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Dr Paul Kaminski.

Former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Technology Leader Paul Kaminski Recognised For “Moving The World Closer to Stability”

London, July 28, 1997 — Former US Secretary of State and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr., has been named recipient of the 1997 International Strategic Studies Association's Gold Star Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress, the Association's highest award, normally reserved for heads-of-government.

ISSA has made no awards since 1991, largely because of the instability in the world situation.

As well, ISSA named Dr Paul G. Kaminski, until recently US Under-Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, as the recipient of the Stefan T. Possony Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress Through Science and Technology. Dr Kaminski is widely recognised for his contribution to the development of “stealth” technology. This is only the second time the Possony award has been made. The medal is named in honor of Dr Stefan T. Possony, who died in April 1995, and who was called “the greatest strategic philosopher of the 20th Century”.

The medals were presented in Washington DC at the big Strategy'97 conference of senior defense and political leaders from around the world, on September 22, 23 and 24, 1997.

Recipients of the ISSA's Silver Star Award for Outstanding Contributions to Strategic Progress for 1997 have not yet been announced.

ISSA President Gregory Copley, announced the Awards from London, said: “The lifetime of contributions made to international understanding by General Alexander Haig have, in the past, been recognized by his appointment to high office in the US and NATO, but the broad scope of his work in bringing about understandings between leaders of many different countries has never been fully acknowledged. He is not only one of the great strategic thinkers and practitioners of his age, he has been — in and out of public office — a constant conduit through which understandings have been able to be reached among the senior echelons of governments of many countries.”

“By facilitating understanding, he has eased tensions and promoted cooperation. This could only have been achieved through his unique experiences as a soldier-statesman, his decades of learning through contact and experience, and his particular brand of intellectual curiosity and ability. The fact that General Haig remains active in world affairs means that he also remains a valuable asset to the world in a time of increasing instability.”

Of Dr Paul Kaminski, Copley noted: “The post-Cold War period has proven to be a time when technology will need to help answer a far greater range of threats to strategic balance than was the case during the challenging, but more orderly structure of the past 50 years. Dr Paul Kaminski has spent his entire career in the pursuit of technologies which helped to ensure the strategic balance. His work, in particular, on 'low observable' systems — stealth — has been of great significance.”

“As with General Haig, Dr Kaminski continues to contribute to society. Since leaving the US Defense Department he has established a new company, Technovation Inc., to further the function of the application of advanced technology.”

The ISSA Awards in 1997 were formalized, for the first time, as medals, designed and crafted by Garrard, the Crown Jewellers, of London. Garrard, which has been involved in making state decorations for many years — including the British Crown Jewels — has joined ISSA and Defense & Foreign Affairs publications as a sponsor of the annual Strategy conferences and the Awards Dinner.

The two recipients will join with senior military and political officials from several dozen countries at a gala black-tie Awards Dinner at Strategy'97 on September 23. The Conference and dinner will be held at the DuPont Plaza Hotel, Washington DC.