US Should Adopt Putin's Peace Through Strength Policy - Former Bush Envoy

Former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph claims that Putin is right to follow a policy of peace through maintaining military strength, and the United States should follow his example.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is right to follow a policy of peace through maintaining military strength, and the United States should follow his example, former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph said.

“We will not be weak. We will not be perceived as weak. Because weakness leads to war" Joseph described Putin’s political philosophy on Wednesday.

"I agree entirely with President Putin,” the envoy told a Congressional roundtable discussion on missile defense in Europe hosted by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance on Capitol Hill.

Joseph, top nuclear arms negotiator under President George W. Bush, said he is a critic of the Obama administration on strategic defense.

He told the meeting that President Obama had scrapped in 2013 the proposed fourth phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA).

The EPAA is meant to provide protection from short- and medium-range ballistic missile threats originating in the Middle East, primarily Iran.

Russia, however, sees the EPAA as a part of an ongoing policy of extending US and NATO influence eastward through Europe and Eurasia.

Joseph said the United States should follow Russia's example and strengthen its own conventional and anti-ballistic missile deployments in Europe.

"There is concern that the hollowing out of NATO's (military) capability has to be addressed," he said.

Robert Joseph stressed that the United States needs to rethink its obsolete Cold War defense doctrine following Russia’s example.

"We should think about our [strategic nuclear and military] doctrine," Joseph said.

Joseph, a senior arms control expert under former President George W. Bush, noted that the United States still follows “a Cold War doctrine” and still has “a legacy Cold War force posture."

The obsolete military doctrine and deployment are inadequate to deal with "what is perceived as a… threat to the NATO alliance," he said, referring to the growing tensions between Russia and the United States over the Ukraine crisis.

It was essential, he added, that the US and Russian governments worked to understand each other better.

"We have to understand the nature of the threat [to both countries]," he said. "The greatest miscalculation comes from misunderstanding each other."

The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance is a US non-profit organization which seeks to generate public support for the continued testing, development and deployment of missile defense systems to protect the United States and its allies, according to the organization’s website.