Senator Richard G. Lugar Named CNA's 2012 Nitze Award Winner

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Nov 15, 2012, 01:30 ET

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CNA today announced that Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana is the winner of its 2012 Paul H. Nitze award. The CNA Nitze Award was established in 1992 to recognize distinguished leaders who promote, stimulate, and broaden public understanding of national security. Lugar will receive the award at CNA's 70th anniversary banquet and awards dinner on November 17.

Lugar is the U.S. Senate's most senior Republican and longest-serving Member of Congress in Indiana history. He is the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member and former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. He was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and won a sixth term in 2006. He will retire from his post at the end of the current session of Congress.

One of Lugar's most notable accomplishments has been his work to reduce the threat posed by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In 1991, in partnership with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman, Sam Nunn, he lead efforts to reduce Soviet stockpiles of these weapons – efforts which have resulted in the deactivation of more than 7,500 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States.

CNA's Nitze Award is named for Paul Henry Nitze, statesman and former CNA trustee, who, for more than 50 years, was one of the principal architects of American national security and arms control policies and of U.S. naval policies. He served every President from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, helping shape the landmark issues and events of modern national security policy: the strategic bombing survey, the Marshall Plan, the H-bomb debate, NSC 68, the Korean War, the Berlin and Cuban missile crises, Vietnam, SALT, INF, and START.

Past CNA Nitze Award recipients include Sen. Sam Nunn, Dr. James Schlesinger, Rep. Lee Hamilton, Lawrence Eagleburger, and William Perry.

CNA is a not-for-profit organization that serves the public's interests by providing in-depth research and solutions-oriented analyses to help decision makers choose the best course of action in setting policy and managing operations. CNA: Nobody gets closer — to the people, to the data, to the problem. www.cna.org

Note to editors: "CNA" is not an acronym and should not carry a parenthetical descriptor. CNA is correctly referenced as "CNA" or "CNA, a not-for-profit research and analysis organization." CNA is the parent organization of the Institute for Public Research and the Center for Naval Analyses, which, if referenced, should be cited as "CNA's Institute for Public Research" or "CNA's Center for Naval Analyses."

SOURCE CNA