Debt swapping as a tool for economic and social stabilization in Russia's closed nuclear cities (briefing paper)

Fuller, JL ; Leek, KM

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.)

关键词: Financial Incentives;    98 Nuclear Disarmament, Safeguards, And Physical Protection;    Socio-Economic Factors;    Environmental Impacts;    Technology Impacts;   

DOI  :  10.2172/751989
RP-ID  :  PNNL-13097
RP-ID  :  AC06-76RL01830
RP-ID  :  751989

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

The next great issue on the Russian landscape will be management of its foreign debt. In the near future the United States will be called upon to lead an international program of debt restructuring to assist Russia in overcoming the burden of its debt trap. With debt service obligations equal to 50{percent} of 1999 revenues, Russia has virtually no chance of sustaining a program of economic recovery without debt relief (Hardt, 1999). With some form of debt restructuring a foregone conclusion, Russia, the United States, and world community have a vital stake in searching for creative ways to transform the inevitability of debt restructuring into something of value and constructive to Russia and the problems it faces. This was the rationale behind debt-for-nature swaps which emerged in the early 1980s in Latin American and Eastern Europe as a means of relieving developing nations of their crippling foreign debt. Debt-for-nature swaps served both domestic and international needs by converting a portion of foreign debt, often at steep discounts, into local currency that was then used to fund programs to preserve the environment. The debt swap mechanism provides the prospect of getting something of real value where nothing is expected. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has proposed to use the same model to synergistically capitalize defense threat reduction activities and environmental remediation within Russia's closed nuclear cities. Preventing the emigration of nuclear technology, expertise, and hardware from these cities to subnational groups and countries of proliferation concern is one of the world's foremost pressing problems. It is in the best national security interest of the United states to assist Russia in overcoming the legacy of the Cold War by helping to address the catastrophic environmental and public health effects of nuclear production that negatively impact economic stabilization.