YEAR IN REVIEW 1998

Military Affairs Arms Control and Disarmament. U.S. and Russian nuclear disarmament was restrained by the continued reluctance of the Russian State Duma (the legislature's lower house) to ratify the 1993 Strategic Arms Reduction Talks II (START-II) treaty. At their March summit meeting in Helsinki, Fin., U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton and Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin agreed on a framework for the follow-up START-III treaty, which would cut each country's strategic nuclear arsenal to no more than 2,500 warheads. In an effort to make the START-II treaty more palatable to the State Duma, they also agreed to extend the treaty's reduction period by five years. A protocol incorporating this provision was signed by the two countries in September, along with several documents relating to the 1972 antiballistic missile (ABM) treaty. These named Belarus, Russia, Kazakstan, and Ukraine as successors to the Soviet Union for the purposes of the treaty and defined the parameters of the shorter-range missile defense systems that would not be subject to the treaty. With the UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) dragging its heels on negotiating a ban on antipersonnel land mines, the impetus in this field shifted to the "Ottawa Process"--named after the site of an October 1996 conference sponsored by Canada with the express aim of achieving a global ban at the earliest possible date. In addition to nations, the process included a number of nongovernmental organizations. The most notable of these was the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in over 60 countries. A treaty text was adopted at a follow-up conference in Oslo in September. Diana, princess of Wales--who had been the world's most visible advocate of a land mine ban and was to have addressed the Oslo conference--was killed in an automobile accident on August 31. (See OBITUARIES.) The U.S. had preferred the CD as the forum for regulating land mines and rather reluctantly joined the Oslo conference. American efforts to amend the draft treaty to allow several exceptions--such as the continued use of antipersonnel mines in Korea--failed, and President Clinton announced that the U.S. would not sign the treaty. He did, however, launch an initiative to raise $1 billion each year for mine-clearing operations with the goal of eradicating by 2010 all land mines threatening civilian populations. A number of countries with large stockpiles of land mines--such as Russia and China--did not attend the Oslo meeting. When the ICBL and its American coordinator, Jody Williams, were jointly awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize in October, President Yeltsin announced that Russia would support the treaty. (See NOBEL PRIZES.) It was opened for signature in Ottawa on December 3 and within a few days was signed by the representatives of 123 countries. Despite Yeltsin's earlier statements, Russia did not immediately sign. Other significant absentees included China and the United States. The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in April, and Jos Mauricio Bustani of Brazil was elected the first director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the treaty's implementing body. The U.S. ratified the convention in April, and Russia followed suit in November. India, China, and South Korea were among the signatories that for the first time acknowledged having chemical-weapons programs. United States. (For Approximate Strengths of Selected Regular Armed Forces, see Table.) Once again, Congress appropriated more money for defense than the Clinton administration had requested, passing a $247.7 billion Department of Defense budget for fiscal 1998. President Clinton exercised restraint in using his new line item veto authority, trimming just 13 projects worth $144 million from the bill. These included the money to operate the SR-71 "Blackbird" spy planes--a program that Congress had kept alive since the air force had tried in 1989 to retire the supersonic reconnaissance aircraft. Clinton signed the authorization bill despite reservations about provisions that dealt with the closing of several air force maintenance depots. In May the Pentagon completed its Quadrennial Defense Review, which concluded that the U.S. must retain the ability to win two regional wars at the same time. The report recommended a modest reduction in total military personnel strength while maintaining 100,000 troops in both Europe and Asia and called for another round of military base closings. In November Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced a Defense Reform Initiative, which aimed to streamline the organization and operation of his department and thereby generate savings to help fund the development and procurement of a new generation of information-based weapons systems. Highlights of the plan included the reduction over 18 months of one-third of the personnel in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the creation of a Threat Reduction & Treaty Compliance Agency by consolidation of the On-Site-Inspection Agency, the Defense Special Weapons Agency, and the Defense Technology Security Administration. The U.S.'s armed forces suffered more from troubles of their own making during the year than from any foreign foe. Celebrations of the air force's 50th anniversary were clouded by the unprecedented early retirement of the service's chief of staff and several high-visibility cases of alleged sexual misconduct. Gen. Ronald Fogleman resigned in protest over plans to discipline the general in charge of an air force facility in Saudi Arabia struck by a terrorist bomb in June 1996. An earlier air force investigation had cleared the officer of any responsibility for the incident. The air force's first female B-52 pilot, charged with adultery and fraternization, accepted a general discharge rather than face a court-martial, and an air force general who was the leading candidate to replace Gen. John Shalikashvili as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took his name out of contention after allegations that he had had an adulterous affair more than a decade earlier were made. As a result, Gen. Henry Shelton in October became the third successive army incumbent in the nation's top military post, which had traditionally been rotated among the three services. The sergeant major of the army--the service's top enlisted man--was first suspended from his duties and then replaced to face a court-martial after he was charged with sexual harassment. In a report released in September, a senior army review panel concluded that sexual harassment and discrimination existed throughout the service. A Defense Department panel in December recommended reducing the integration of men and women in the armed services. The high operational requirements resulting from the U.S's many overseas commitments took a toll on pilot retention, especially those flying high-performance fighter aircraft. More than 700 experienced pilots left the air force during the year. The Pentagon in July suspended indefinitely military participation in the antidrug patrols along the border with Mexico after a marine shot and killed an 18-year-old Texan. A spate of military aircraft accidents in September prompted the secretary of defense to order all the services to implement a 24-hour "safety stand-down." During the year the air force rolled out its first F-22 "Raptor" air superiority fighter, and the B-2 stealth bomber was declared to be ready for operational use. Art, Antiques, and Collections Dubious art transactions, alleged price-fixing, subpoenas, tell-all books, and news about celebrities' lives and deaths--all provided tabloid fodder and embarrassing imbroglios for the art world in 1997. Bad publicity did not seem to affect the market, however, and a strong U.S. economy was reflected in healthy sales from the leading auction houses. Financial results from the first half of the year put Christie's in the lead with $908 million in sales, ahead of arch-rival Sotheby's, which posted sales of $857.9 million. In February Sotheby's launched an in-house investigation following allegations that the firm's Old Masters specialist in Milan, Roeland Kollewijn, had smuggled a painting by Giuseppe Nogari out of Italy. Later that month Kollewijn resigned. The release of Peter Watson's book Sotheby's: Inside Story cast a spotlight on this and other questionable, if not fraudulent, activities at the auction house. Once the word spread, the FBI, news organizations, and other investigators began circling the formerly sacrosanct realm of highbrow art, antiques dealers, collectors, and auction houses. During May some of New York City's leading art dealers and auction houses were subpoenaed as part of a U.S. federal investigation into possible price-fixing. Nevertheless, the art market enjoyed its strongest sales in more than six years. During Christie's Contemporary, Impressionist, and Modern sales in May, the auction house brought in $265 million, up dramatically from 1996 May sales of $119 million. In October an exhibition 10 years in the planning, "A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum," finally made the trip from London to Baltimore, Md., for its debut. The monumental show was scheduled to be mounted at five North American venues through 1999, when it would return to London. The Cold War seemed likely to reemerge during an East-West squabble over "Jewels of the Romanovs," an exhibition of imperial Russian jewels that was to leave the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., for a May opening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. Before the national treasures could be shipped, however, Russians blockaded the museum and demanded that the jewels be returned to Moscow for the city's 850th anniversary celebration. The crisis was defused, however, and the jewels were transported to Texas. The issue of Russia returning artworks and historical documents taken from European countries during World War II was addressed in May when the Russian Duma (parliament) voted to retain the treasures for Russia. In Spain the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened as planned in October, in a new Frank Gehry-designed building. Portugal's first public museum devoted to late-20th-century international art opened in May, thanks to the largesse of Portuguese financier Jos Berardo, who reportedly spent upward of $100 million on artwork during the 1990s. In March, Willem de Kooning, the Abstract Expressionist master, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. (See OBITUARIES.) REBECCA KNAPP