Elimination of weapons of mass destruction: lessons from the last quarter-century

Abstract

This special issue of the Nonproliferation Review results from a project funded by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, aiming to identify lessons learned from efforts to eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) around the world. It contains edited versions of papers presented at a November 2015 workshop at the Washington, DC, offices of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. One section covers crosscutting themes, including the strategic, diplomatic, legal, technical, and inter-and intra-agency dimensions of elimination. The second section discusses lessons learned from work in the former Soviet states, Iraq in the 1990s, Iraq in 2003-04, South Africa, Libya, and Syria. Major observations include that the field lacks institutionalization. There are few standing bodies with funding and responsibility for WMD elimination; each case usually emerges by surprise and has ad hoc character. Different combinations of states and international agencies may be involved, bringing varied authorities and competencies to different operational environments. A generic "checklist" approach accordingly may be best suited to applying past lessons to new missions. Among the few constants are a need for extensive coordination between partners and, where applicable, the WMD possessor, and the importance of cultivating high-level support for the mission, both nationally and internationally. Persistent gaps can be seen in both institutions and capabilities. These include the lack of any standing pre-crisis planning body or forum; a lack of sufficient capabilities for identifying and characterizing WMD, especially biological weapons; a lack of understanding of how to approach the dismantlement of foreign nuclear weapons, if necessary. Without continued investment in destruction technologies and organizations, new gaps are likely to emerge as today's parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention complete the destruction of their chemical-weapons stockpiles. Elimination is comparable to other areas of countering WMD. It would benefit from corresponding levels of attention and resources. KEYWORDSWeapons of mass destruction; elimination; chemical weapons; Syria; Libya; South Africa; former Soviet Union; IraqIn mid-2014, a US-led coalition of states and international organizations completed a remarkable task: eliminating one of the largest remaining chemical-weapons (CW) stockpiles in the world, declared by Syria one year before. This effort concluded a process of elimination that began after the Syrian regime employed CW in a large-scale attack against civilians in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus controlled by the opposition, in August 2013.

Disposal, Destruction and Disarmament: Comparative Analysis of US Chemical Weapon and Weapons Plutonium Stockpile Reductions

“…Much of this literature deals with nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, landmines and cluster munitions, all of which have been the focus of concerted international disarmament activity(Egeland 2022; Gibbons 2018;Lodgaard 2017; Hynek & Smetana 2016;Petrova 2016;Kelleher & Reppy 2011;Borrie 2009; Koblenz 2009; Perkovich & Acton 2009;Anderson 2000;Price 1997). The limited prior work that specifically investigates stockpile reductions focuses mainly on cases wherein one state compels and oversees the elimination of another state's arsenal(Tal- -shir & Mitz 2018;Bleek, Kane & Pollack 2016). 4 A portion of the inventory, estimated initially at several hundred kilograms of highly--enriched uranium, has been converted for use in civilian applications(Feiveson et al 2014: 65-67).…”