Second, and most alarmingly for those around the world who crave decent and intelligent international leadership from the US, Lugar was mocked by his opponents for his foreign-policy expertise and reputation as an outstanding statesman, who for decades had played an absolutely central role on arms control and disarmament issues. His signature achievement was joint authorship with then-Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of the 1992 Cooperative Threat Reduction program (universally known as “Nunn-Lugar”), which successfully secured and dismantled nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states.