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Pierce S. Corden, II

Pierce Stephen Corden was born in Chattanooga, TN, on June 26^th 1941, the first son of Henry and Iris (D’Amelio) Corden. He has worked in nuclear arms control since the early 1970’s for the United States Government in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), State Department and later for the United Nations. He has been instrumental in the negotiation of arms treaties including a treaty on the banning of the use of weather modification as a weapon, a chemical weapons treaty and the current effort for a comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT).

Early life

Corden grew up during WWII on Signal Mountain, TN, close to Chattanooga. His father occasionally hosted foreign engineers who were interested in how the Tennessee Valley Authority delivered electricity to the Tennessee valley. Prominent among these was Sun Yun-suan, future Premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

When he was seven, the family moved to Brainard, another suburb of Chattanooga. He attended elementary school at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School and high school at Notre Dame High School that was then located in downtown Chattanooga. He excelled in school, garnering many awards in academics. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. One summer he attended the grueling Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. A central focus for Pierce at this time was music. In addition to excelling on the classical piano, which he continues to play to this day, he also participated in high school band playing the baritone.

He showed excellence in science and mathematics, which increased during high school with science fair projects. These included an early electroluminescence project and an attempt to measure the speed of light. Pierce was a Merit Scholar awardee.

Higher education

Corden attended Georgetown University for college and majored in physics, graduating in 1963 with a BSc cum laude. He also was a participant in the Honors Program which involved extensive exposure to the liberal arts. As a senior at Georgetown, he was awarded a Danforth fellowship and selected the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for his studies. He was also a recipient of a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

During college at Georgetown, a Jesuit school, he felt he had a vocation to the priesthood and, before graduate studies, entered the Jesuit Novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. After two years there, he commenced graduate school at University of Pennsylvania Department of Physics. He attained a Master of Science in 1966, graduating with a PhD in solid state physics (now usually referred to as condensed matter physics) in 1971. His focus of study and thesis was “An investigation of surface electronic properties of semiconductors by Raman scattering.”

U.S. State Department career

After graduation, Corden moved to Washington, D.C. and entered the United States government as an Officer in the Arms Control and Disarmament agency (ACDA).

Physical Science Officer, ACDA

His first post included policy, technical and diplomatic responsibilities for developing and negotiating agreements limiting nuclear weapon testing and prohibiting environmental warfare. He served as Executive Secretary for backstopping groups for the US-USSR Threshold Test Ban and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaties, and for the first round of CTBT negotiations in 1977. He was a also a member of the U.S. CTBT delegation in 1979. Finally, he was a member of the U.S. delegations to bilateral and multilateral negotiations for the 1977 Environmental Modification Convention.

Executive Secretary, U.S. Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament (CD) 1982-1989

In this role, Corden managed the Conference on Disarmament delegation and delegations to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee (1986-8) and the 1986 Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference. He was responsible for diplomatic and policy issues including nuclear test ban, chemical weapons, radiological weapons, outer space, Israel and nuclear free zones. He also served as the U.S. representative on radiological weapons negotiations Working Group. He was the principal speech-writer for three successive CD Ambassadors and managed visits to the CD by Vice President George H. W. Bush in 1983 and 1984. He was posted to the U.S. Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1986-89.

Chief, European Security Negotiations Division, 1989-1992

Corden led ACDA's involvement in European conventional arms negotiations, including the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, confidence- and security-building measures, the Treaty on Open Skies, and the Forum on Security Cooperation. As a consultant to the UN Special Commission, he participated in drafting a long-term monitoring plan, in particular for biological weapons and ballistic missiles. He supported arms control for the Middle East, Latin America and Korea. Finally, he served as ACDA representative to the NATO High Level Task Force.

Awards

Recipient, Meritorious Honor Award (1981)

Recipient, Superior Honor Award (1992)

Recipient, Distinguished Honor Award, United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1998)

Recipient, Secretary’s Career Achievement Award, United States Department of State (2002)

Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization

Following his career at the State Department, Pierce became the Director of Administration for the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO. He was responsible for the Administration Division's staff of 50. whose purview included finance (budget ($105 million annually) implementation and external audit), personnel, procurement (contracting) and general services. He secured annual adoption of the program and budget by the Commission. He pursued human resources issues, in particular rotation of term-limited professional staff. He also served on rotation as chair for international organizations' coordinating committee for buildings management and interface with the Austrian Foreign Ministry and as an observer to the United Nations' High-Level Committee on Management.

Publications and Papers

"Between Mars and Venus [preventive diplomacy, multilateralism and Iran's nuclear program]," a presentation to the 41 St International Conference of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defense and Disarmament, Smolenice, Slovakia, August, 2006 (Conference paper).

"Reversing Nuclear Proliferation: the Role of Arms Control," a presentation to the 39th lnternational Conference of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defense and Disarmament, Celje, Slovenia, September 2004 (Conference paper).

"Objectives and Goals of the 2000 NPT Review Conference," a presentation to the 12th Regional Disarmament Meeting in the Asia-pacific Region, Kathmandu, Nepal, February 2000.

"Capping Nuclear Capabilities Globally: CTBT and FMCT," a presentation to the Asia Pacific Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Seminar, Bangkok, Thailand, February 25-26, 1999 (Conference paper).

"The Future of the Conference on Disarmament and Multilateral Arms Control," a presentation to the China-U.S. Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation, Beijing, China, September 24-25, 1998 (Conference paper).

"Multilateral Arms Control: Nuclear Test Bans, Landmines, and Other Issues," a presentation to the 33rd lnternational Conference of the Council on Christian Approaches to Defense and Disarmament, Better, Belgium, September 1997 (Conference paper).

"The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty: the United States Perspective," in The Comprehensive Test 8an Treaty: Issues and Answers, ed. Matthew McKinzie, Cornell University Peace Studies Program, Occasional Paper #21, June 1997.

"Implementation of Section C of UN Security Council Resolution 687 (1991): an Analysis of the Practice and of the Problems Involved," in Disarmament and Arms Limitation Obligations: Problems of Compliance and Enforcement, ed. Serge Sur, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), 1994.

"Arms Control in Iraq: the United Nations Experience," in Proceedings of the DNA 1993 lntemational Conference on Controlling Arms, Richmond, VA, 7-10 June 1993, Science Applications lntemational Corp., 1994.

"Building and strengthening confidence and security in Asia," in Non-Proliferation and Confidence-building Measures in Asia and in the Pacific, United Nations, Topical Papers 10 in Disarmament, 1992.

"Ethics and Deterrence: Moving Beyond the Just-War Tradition," in Ethics and Nuclear Strategy?, eds. Harold P. Ford and Francis X. Winters, S.J. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1977).

"Investigation of Surface Electronic Properties of Semiconductors by Raman Scattering" (with A. Pinczuk and E. Burstein), Proc. 101" Intl. Conf. On the Physics of Semiconductors, Boston, 1970.