07 July 2008
Significant Peacekeeping and Nonproliferation Successes
Examples of progress by region
The United States long has assumed a position of global leadership to counter weapons proliferation and promote viable peacekeeping efforts.
U.S. assistance takes varying forms, such as financial aid, organizing workshops, offering training, providing grants or lending personnel and equipment.
In 2003, President Bush launched the Proliferation Security Initiative in Poland. The initiative brings together like-minded nations, on a voluntary basis, to coordinate efforts to prevent weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems or key components from falling into the hands of terrorists or criminals. More than 80 nations are participating in some way through the efforts of their military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, treasury and customs officials. (More)
Here are more examples of other efforts completed or under way in various parts of the world.
AFRICA – Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• The United States has awarded a $271,000 State Department grant to the Mines Advisory Group to help destroy small arms and light weapons in the Horn of Africa and Africa’s Great Lakes region. (More)
• The United States is helping Angola convert more than 500 light weapons into scrap metal and to eliminate safely more than 800 artillery shells, abandoned land mines and unexploded munitions through a grant with the British Halo Trust. (More and photo gallery)
• The Democratic Republic of Congo has been using more than $2 million in U.S. assistance given to the Mine Advisory Group to destroy surplus conventional weapons. (More)
EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC – Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• After extended Six Party Talks –- with participation by North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- North Korea released a report on its past nuclear activity and demolished the main cooling tower at the nuclear complex where it produced plutonium for its nuclear weapons. (More)
• Cambodia’s casualty rate from land mines has dropped by more than 70 percent in the past decade. (More)
SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA - Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• India and the United States have signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement to promote nuclear trade after India implements measures to ensure there will be no ensuing nuclear proliferation risks. (More)
• Afghans who have successfully completed land mine removal operations are now training for new work through a State Department-funded program designed to keep them employed as plumbers, carpenters and electricians. (More)
• A large swath of Bagram Junction in Afghanistan has been cleared of mines and deadly ordnance so that fertile land can be returned to productive use. (More)
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA – Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• Algerian casualties from land mines have averaged less than 10 per year during the past decade.
•Morocco has endorsed the statement of principles for the Proliferation Security Initiative that seeks to prevent the spread of illicit nuclear, chemical or biological weapons by air, land or sea. (More)
• Saudia Arabia and the United States signed an agreement in May 2008 on civil nuclear energy. It paves the way for Saudi Arabia to demonstrate a positive nonproliferation model for the Gulf region. (More)
• The United States and the United Kingdom are working with Libya to implement the Libyan government’s decision to give up weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles. (More)
• The Multinational Force and Observers group, established in 1982 with support from the United States and 10 other nations, has been keeping the peace between Egypt and Israel on the Sinai Peninsula. (More)
• To overcome the threat posed by unexploded munitions in southern Lebanon, the United States has provided more than $2 million to British and American nongovernmental organizations. (More)
• A Landmine Impact Survey in 13 of 18 Iraqi provinces represents one of the many ways the United States is helping Iraq by working to remove land mines, artillery shells, unexploded munitions and other remnants of conflict. (More)
EUROPE – Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• The European Union issued a June 2008 statement of support for the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism that seeks to deter, detect and deny potential nuclear terrorists safe haven or access to material to make an explosive device. (More)
• The United States has helped Russia secure 50 naval sites to prevent nuclear smuggling by installing radiation sensors and access controls. (More)
• With U.S. assistance, Albania has destroyed completely 16 tons of chemical weapons. (More)
• Macedonia is now free of deadly land mines. The United States contributed financially to humanitarian mine action efforts that made this possible. (More)
• Ukraine is destroying small arms, light weapons and munitions that are surplus to its needs through a NATO program that is funded by the United States. In 2006, it destroyed 1,000 shoulder-launched missiles. (More)
• The United States and Russia are implementing measures to convert excess weapon-grade plutonium into mixed oxide fuel for use in civilian nuclear reactors. The 68 metric tons otherwise would provide enough material to produce 16,000 nuclear weapons. (More)
WESTERN HEMISPHERE – Some examples of U.S. efforts to improve regional security:
• The United States and the community of Caribbean countries (CARICOM) have pledged to improve regional cooperation to prevent illicit small arms and light weapon trafficking from fueling a black market that supplies weapons to criminal gangs, terrorists and drug traffickers operating in the Western Hemisphere. (More)
• The United States has partnered with the Organization of American States to remove land mines through the Central America Munitions Stockpile Destruction Pilot program. Central and South American nations such as Nicaragua, Honduras and Chile have received more than $30 million in U.S. assistance for mine removal research and development programs, educational messages and survivor assistance. (More)
• Jamaica joined an international effort to prevent smuggling of nuclear and other radioactive materials by ship when it signed the Customs’ Container Security Initiative and the National Nuclear Security Initiative’s Megaports Initiative. (More)
