The economic development of Eastern and Central European countries should be stimulated by trade, particularly with the European Union (EU), and not with foreign aid, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn said during a lecture at Georgia Tech last week.
Speaking to more than 150 uniformed R.O.T.C. students attending a lecture hosted by the university’s Ivan Allen College of Management, Mr. Nunn criticized the EU for keeping out neighboring countries.
His remark was in response to a question from a student who said that he was concerned specifically about the economic conditions of Bulgaria and Romania after visiting these countries.
“We are using NATO to do a political and psychological job,” Mr. Nunn said, referring to the efforts to admit countries to the alliance at the same time that their admission to the EU is delayed. “We should be putting pressure on the Europeans to expand trade.”
Mr. Nunn’s called the potential spread of nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology both at home and abroad by refugees of the old Soviet Union as the world’s top security problem.
Since his retirement from the U.S. Senate in October, 1996, Mr. Nunn has been a part-time professor on international affairs and public policy at Georgia Tech, and its School of International Affairs was named in his honor. Mr. Nunn also has joined the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding.