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02 June 2008
U.S. Official Says World Needs Tools to Fight Spread of Weapons
Exercises, workshops help nations to deter, detect illicit traffic
Washington -- The Bush administration is committed to upholding arms-control treaties while also pursuing counterproliferation tools to prevent the illicit spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Acting Under Secretary of State John Rood said this administration signed the 2002 Moscow Treaty to further reduce U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons and proposed a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty in the Conference on Disarmament in 2006. But it also sees great value, he said, in finding ways for compatible countries to deter proliferation by other means.
Rood, who is responsible for arms control and international security, told America.gov it is important to have such tools to deal with the spread of these dangerous weapons and the nuclear ambitions of al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden.
Rood said it is most important to bring together a committed group of nations willing and able to deal with such a danger. He said partner nations are on the cutting edge of using new tools to address pressing security challenges that include terrorist groups trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is one such tool. The initiative is five years old now, and more than 90 nations support its goal of stopping the trafficking of these deadly weapons, their delivery systems and related materials.
PSI did not require the creation of a new protocol or a formal document. It meant bringing nations together to implement practical steps to combat WMD and ballistic-missile proliferation. Partners endorse a set of principles for action and participate in voluntary activities according to relevant international laws and national legal authorities.
For countries that have not focused on counterproliferation before or for smaller nations with limited budgets, PSI has helped build a set of skills needed to address the scale of the threat through simulations, workshops and interdiction exercises (30 to date involving 70 nations) on land, at sea, or in the air.
Some of the least responsible states in the world -- Iran, North Korea and Syria -- have exhibited interest in WMD, Rood said, “and that kind of thirst for the most destructive weapons ever invented by man is what drives us to want to have like-minded countries participate” in the PSI and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.
COMPLEMENTARY MODEL FOR DETERRENCE
The Global Initiative is modeled after PSI but has been around only for about a year and a half. Still, its work is pressing because of hundreds of nuclear-smuggling incidents, some involving weapons-grade material. “You have the largest diffusion in history of nuclear expertise,” he said.
Spain will host the next Global Initiative meeting and exercise program June 16-18. Seventy-one nations have endorsed principles to combat nuclear terrorism through better detection methods, improved physical protection measures, information-sharing, impounding illicit cargoes and a ready response should the worst happen.
Rood said nations need to regulate and control radiological materials for legitimate purposes so they do not end up in an improvised radiological explosive device, or “dirty bomb.”
The Germans recently hosted a Global Initiative activity, he said, to help countries address questions such as how to certify usage of nuclear material and how to prevent its theft or diversion. Past activities focused on training in nuclear detection and denying safe haven to terrorists.
NATIONS CHALLENGED TO CONTRIBUTE, MODEL HIGH STANDARDS
PSI and the Global Initiative are complementary and similar in construct, Rood said, because both depend on a large political confederation of nations ready to work together and help new nations improve their ability to confront proliferation challenges. The dozens of PSI interdictions have included missile technology bound for Iran.
Such interdictions have halted illicit trade, the official said, or made it more expensive and difficult for proliferators to obtain needed technology. There is also a deterrent effect in having so many countries committed to the goal of working together, he added.
Rood said he would like to see greater emphasis on disrupting middlemen, front companies and brokers.
Rood also emphasized the importance of effective export controls because, he said, the easiest way to stop the trade of sensitive technology is at the source. Strong laws make it possible to go after illicit trade at border crossings and ports.
He said activities undertaken by PSI and Global Initiative participants will not go unnoticed by proliferators, who will be forced “to shape their behavior in ever more complex ways.”
Future academicians likely will point to these initiatives as models for replication in fields well beyond arms control, the official said. In terms of international collective action, Rood said, this is a way effectively to challenge countries to participate, contribute and live up to high standards.
For more information about smuggling, see a chronology on the CIA Web site. For U.S. policy information about proliferation, see PSI and for more about combating nuclear terrorism, see the Global Initiative on the State Department Web site.
