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ABSTRACT
The multilateral disarmament of Iraq represents the first time since the 1918 Treaty of Versailles that victors in war imposed disarmament upon another country. In many ways, the disarmament efforts of the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) in the 1990s were highly successful, resulting in the discovery and elimination of most of Iraq's biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs, as well as their delivery systems. This article discusses the origins of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the establishment of UNSCOM, and UNSCOM's operational structures, capabilities, and results, as well as its eventual replacement by the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission—a result of political strife within the body that created it, the UN Security Council.
Notes
1. For a definitive history on World War I that also relays this perception of WWI causality, see Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (New York: Macmillan, 1963).
2. Even an international security policy instrument as late as the 1990 Charter of Paris for a New Europe does not provide much space to disarmament, although military confidence-building measures were considered. The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, agreed upon in the context of the adoption of the Paris Charter, has been operationally frozen since July 14, 2007, when Russia announced that it would suspend implementation of its treaty obligations, effective after 150 days. In March 2015, Russia announced that it was completely halting its participation in the treaty.
3. Marc Duvoisin, “Saudis Warn Iran Over Mecca Visits,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 1987, <http://articles.philly.com/1987-08-26/news/26169511_1_iranian-pilgrims-saudi-arabia-mecca-and-medina>, and Pouya Alimagham, “The Saudi Roots of Today’s Shi’ite-Sunni War,” Huftington Post, June 23, 2014, <www.huffingtonpost.com/pouya-alimagham/the-saudi-roots-of-todays_b_5520110.html>.
4. United Nations Special Commission, “Basic Facts: Establishment,” <www.un.org/Depts/unscom/General/basicfacts.html>.
5. Tim Trevan, Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), p. 11.
6. United Nations, Note by the Secretary-General, S/1994/1422, December 15, 1994, <www.un.org/Depts/unscom/sres94-1422.htm>.
7. Kamel, Saddam’s second cousin and husband to his daughter, Raghad, was minister of military industries until his 1995 defection to Jordan. Initially, he promised to reveal a wealth of intelligence to UNSCOM and UK intelligence services, though he contributed little beyond what inspectors were able to ascertain without his help. According to the Washington Post's Daniel Williams, Kamel's defection prompted Baghdad to “unexpectedly” release a “windfall” of previously withheld information regarding the Iraqi missile, chemical, and biological program. Daniel Williams, “Iraqi Defectors Killed on Return to Baghdad,” Washington Post, February 24, 1996, <www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/02/24/iraqi-defectors-killed-on-return-to-baghdad/d49fc14b-e415-42f7-8c61-dc64f548d7f5/>.
8. Gudrun Harrer, Dismantling the Iraqi Nuclear Programme: The Inspections of the Iraqi Nuclear Program (Routledge, 2014); Amy Smithson, Germ Gambits: The Bioweapons Dilemma, Iraq and Beyond (Stanford University Press, 2011); Rolf Ekéus, “The Iraq Action Team: a model for monitoring and verification of WMD non-proliferation,” September 12, 2012, <www.sipri.org/media/newsletter/essay/Ekeus_Sep12>.
9. See “Tenth report of the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9 (b) (i) of Security Council Resolution 687 (1991), and paragraph 3 of Resolution 699 (1991) on the activities of the Special Commission,” S/1995/1038, December 17, 1995, <www.un.org/Depts/unscom/sres95-1038.htm>.