The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly ratified the landmark US-India civil nuclear trade agreement recently, a rare foreign policy victory for President Bush.

The nuclear pact was controversial both in the United States and in India that raised alarms about a new arms race in South Asia in particular, and in Asia and the Middle East – especially with China and Iran – in general.

Within the U.S. government, the foreign policy process was also questioned by national security experts in light of 9/11 security context. To examine the interagency policy process, the Center for the Study of Presidency, an American think tank, recruited Sri Lankan-born American diplomat, Dr. Patrick Mendis, to study this breakthrough U.S. policy by the Bush administration.

Dr. Mendis, a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the vice president of the Osgood Center for International Studies, produced an extensive case study with one of his former students in the U.S. Navy. Former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John McLaughlin, currently a senior fellow at SAIS, released the 625-page book of case studies that include Dr. Mendis’ study on U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement.

Former military professor through the University of Maryland in the NATO and Pacific Commands, Dr. Mendis became a national security and foreign policy expert. He worked as the chairman of U.S. government interagency policy working group on science and technology at the U.S. State Department and an advisor to the California-based Center for Global Security Research at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab of the U.S. Department of Energy. At the State Department, Dr. Mendis coordinated the science and technology policy with the White House and served as an advisor to the US Delegations to the United Nations.

The book release at the highly influential Hudson Institute was telecasted by C-SPAN and announced in other media. The CIA director said that the recommendations would be used to formulate new legislation in the new U.S. administration. The nuclear trade relations will become a priority in either Barak Obama or John McCain administration, the director McLaughlin predicted.

Dr. Mendis’ analysis contains the possible implications for the South Asia region as well as insights for improvements in a new interagency working space within the U.S. government.

The study was sponsored by a bipartisan, private-public partnership, through the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR). A guiding coalition of twenty-five former highest-ranking foreign policy and national security officials sets the strategic direction. PNSR is funded by U.S. Congress, foundations, and corporations. All case studies are publicly available.

Former CIA acting director of John McLaughlin (left) and Dr. Patrick Mendis, senior fellow and visiting scholar respectively, at the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.