John Kerry: “Like so many other aspects of our national security today, arms sales and other military assistance needs still to be…”

“Like so many other aspects of our national security today, arms sales and other military assistance needs still to be adjusted to the realities of the post-cold-war world. The central theme of our foreign policy has changed from containment of communism to expansion of democracy. So we no longer need to send these massive amounts of weaponry to our surrogates around the world in an arms race against communism. Instead, we need to evaluate the effect that arms transfers have on regional stability, on the promotion of democracy, and on the protection of human rights. The legislation in front of us seeks to do that. It makes democracy, human rights, and nonaggression the central criteria for decisions on arms transfers.”