1. Environmental Aspects of International Agreements
Bill Nicholls ODUSD (I&E) ER&S
Workshop on Environmental Considerations in Military Operations/Global Basing

2. Environmental Aspects of Int’l Agreements
History
Pre-90’s (NATO SOFA; LBA; Def of Iceland; ROK…..)
German SA??
US-Japanese JS
Korean SOFA Re-negotiations/MOSU /1
Spanish DCA /2
Korean LPP “TAB A”
Greenland Defense Agreement 2004
ROMEX
Romania DCA (& IAs) 2005/6
Bulgaria DCA (IAs) 2006
Djibouti SOFA (2006)
Kyrgyzstan SOFA (2006)
Iceland DOI Treaty/NASKef Closure (2006)
Pre – little or no environmental language…..”respect HN law”……EO12088……comply with (substantive) HN law……
ROMEX 05 – derailed US-RO talks August 2005!!! (Craig)
Newer agreement contain binding language……legal obligations – good and bad
Workshop on Environmental Considerations in Military Operations/Global Basing

3. Environmental Aspects of Int’l Agreements
Negotiations Strategy:
Past -
Deal from a position of power
Get the “best deal” we can
New Approach -
Include environmental language
Reciprocal obligations
Enable the mission
Protect the force
Spend US dollars wisely
Limit future US liability
Demonstrate appropriate environmental stewardship
Power - We “won” – sign here or our presence was extremely desirable…
Best deal was – no language or ambiguous language – the old “respect” thing – much abused
Let’s identify our obligations either in binding language or as “compelling” language – Service and CoComs must understand the agreements. Goal is to have “common” language to extent possible (no us vs them). Ensure HNs understand that they have obligations as well – not one way.
Basel…..Sustainablity…..
“do we get to come back?” What is our reputation…..
Panama. .Philippines….Bermuda…..Korea….Greenland….Iceland
Workshop on Environmental Considerations in Military Operations/Global Basing

4. Environmental Aspects of Int’l Agreements
Challenges:
Revise policy to meet changing global posture
Liability is more than fiscal
Understand “global” nature of our actions
DoDI ….flexible and scalable…must be able to meet our obligations…
Develop “standard” language – communicate obligations to CoComs and MilDeps (Funding);
Liability is poilitical…..as well
We are a global community…our performance in Romania can affects our access to Indonesia…..Australia….Poland etc
Workshop on Environmental Considerations in Military Operations/Global Basing