DISARMAMENT IN THE TIME OF PERESTROIKA | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Dec 8, 2024 7:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Dec 8, 2024 7:00 pm
14th & V
December 8th, 2024 is the 37th anniversary of the signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which oversaw the destruction of all short-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the US and Soviet arsenals. The success of this treaty led to additional treaties that saw the reduction of the strategic nuclear forces of both Russia and the Soviet Union. The treaty demonstrated how two nations, fundamentally at odds with one another, could come together and rid the world of weapons that threatened international peace, security and all of humanity. Scott Ritter participated as an inspector in the first three years implementing the INF treaty in the Soviet Union. He draws upon his own personal history at the Votkinsk Portal, circa December 1988 – it was the wild, wild East of arms control, a place where the inspectors and inspected alike were writing the rules of the game as it played out before them. The INF treaty implementation did not occur in a geopolitical vacuum. Ritter captures, on a human level, the historic changes taking place inside the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev due to the new policies of perestroika and glasnost that gripped the Soviet Union during this time.
Unfortunately, time has seen the enforcement of the INF treaty wither away before our very eyes. In August 2019, then President Trump withdrew the United States from the treaty. In November 2024, Russia fired a new intermediate-range missile at Ukraine, something that would not have happened if the INF treaty was still in force. Join us as Ritter and Colonel Larry Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, discuss the needs for arms control, the importance of the INF Treaty, and the dangers we face today as the treaty is no more. Afterwards, Scott Ritter will be joined by two veteran INF inspectors for a conversation about what it was like bringing the treaty to life and what it was like living in Votkinsk, a Society factory known for making missiles.
Scott Ritter is joining us on the Busboys stage for a jam packed evening of history meeting contemporary global issues. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Ritter will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 7:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of DISARMAMENT IN THE TIME OF PERESTROIKA will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Scott Ritter is a former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and on the staff of General Norman Schwartzkopf during the Gulf War, where he played a critical role in the hunt for Iraqi SCUD missiles. From 1991 until 1998, Mr. Ritter served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq, leading the search for Iraq’s proscribed weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Ritter was a vocal critic of the American decision to go to war with Iraq. He resides in Upstate New York, where he writes on issues pertaining to arms control, the Middle East and national security. Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika is Mr. Ritter’s tenth book.
