Strategic challenges to WMD elimination

ABSTRACT

Operations to eliminate weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are highly situation-dependent and defy easily replicable solutions and approaches. Nevertheless, by examining WMD elimination missions as they have transpired over the past several decades, we can begin to identify several consistent challenges. Learning to better prepare for these challenges—both within and across various facets of the US government as well as with our international partners—will enhance future elimination operations and their chances of success. The article concludes by asserting that military and nonmilitary approaches to these operations are not competing ideological approaches but rather reflect the complexity of the operational environment and the subsequent need for a range of legal, political, military, financial, and diplomatic tools.

KEYWORDS:

• Weapons of mass destruction
• disarmament
• nonproliferation
• Cooperative Threat Reduction
• former Soviet Union
• Iraq
• chemical weapons
• Middle East
• Libya
• Syria

Notes

1. Brian Knowland, “Ship allowed to take North Korea Scuds on to Yemeni port: U.S. frees freighter carrying missiles,” New York Times, December 12, 2002, <www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/news/12iht-scuds_ed3_.html>.

2. Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “National Military Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction,” February 13, 2006, p. 7, <http://archive.defense.gov/pdf/NMS-CWMD2006.pdf>.

3. United States Department of Defense, “Quadrennial Defense Review Report,” February 6, 2006, p. 6. <www.dod.mil/pubs/pdfs/QDR20060203.pdf>.

4. Department of Defense, “Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction Policy,” April 19, 2007, <www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/206002p.pdf>.

5. Barack Obama, “Remarks By President Barack Obama In Prague As Delivered,” Prague, April 5, 2009, <www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-barack-obama-prague-delivered>.

6. National Nuclear Security Administration, “GTRI: Reducing Nuclear Threats,” May 29, 2014, <http://nnsa.energy.gov/mediaroom/factsheets/reducingthreats>.

7. Kingston Reif, “Congress Doesn’t Show the Money for Nuclear Security,” Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, January 24, 2011, <http://armscontrolcenter.org/congress-doesnt-show-the-money-for-nuclear-security/>; United States Department of Defense, “Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Estimate Cooperative Threat Reduction Program,” February 2010, <http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2011/budget_justification/pdfs/01_Operation_and_Maintenance/O_M_VOL_1_PARTS/CTR_FY11.pdf>.

8. United States Department of Defense, “Quadrennial Defense Review Report,” February 2010, p. 35, <http://history.defense.gov/Portals/70/Documents/quadrennial/QDR2010.pdf>.

9. Eric Schmitt, “Libya's Cache of Toxic Arms All Destroyed,” New York Times, February 2, 2014, <www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/world/africa/libyas-cache-of-toxic-arms-all-destroyed.html>.

10. For additional information and details on Libya, see, in this volume, Patrick Terrell, Katharine Hagen, and Ted A. Ryba, Jr., “Eliminating Libya's WMD Programs: Creating a Cooperative Situation,” pp. 185–196.

11. Derek Chollet and Ben Fishman, with Alan J. Kuperman, “Who Lost Libya?” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2015, <www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/libya/2015-04-20/who-lost-libya>.

12. Joby Warrick, “More than 1,400 killed in Syrian CW attack, U.S. says,” Washington Post, August 30, 2013, <www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nearly-1500-killed-in-syrian-chemical-weapons-attack-us-says/2013/08/30/b2864662-1196-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html>.

13. James Ball, “Obama issues Syria a ‘red line’ warning on CW,” Washington Post, August 20, 2014, <www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-issues-syria-red-line-warning-on-chemical-weapons/2012/08/20/ba5d26ec-eaf7-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_story.html>.

14. OPCW Executive Council, “Decision: Reports of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria,” February 4, 2015, <www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/EC/M-48/ecm48dec01_e_.pdf>.

15. UN Security Council, Resolution 2235, August 7, 2015, <www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2235.pdf>.

16. United Nations, “United Nations Signs Status of Mission Agreement with Syria,” Press Release DC/3596, December 11, 2015, <www.un.org/press/en/2015/dc3596.doc.htm>.

17. United Nations, “Alarmed by Continuing Syria Crisis, Security Council Affirms Its Support for Special Envoy's Approach in Moving Political Solution Forward,” August 17, 2015, <www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12008.doc.htm>.

18. Priyanka Boghani, “A Staggering New Death Toll for Syria's War— 470,000,” Frontline, February 11, 2016, <www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-staggering-new-death-toll-for-syrias-war-470000/>.

19. Margaret Coker and Ben Kesling, “Islamic State Hijacks Mosul University Chemistry Lab for Making Bombs,” Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2016, <www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-hijacks-mosul-university-chemistry-lab-for-making-bombs-1459503003>.

20. United States Department of Defense, “Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction,” June 2014, p. 7, <www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/DOD_Strategy_for_Countering_Weapons_of_Mass_Destruction_dated_June_2014.pdf>, pp. 4, 7.

21. Ibid., pp. 9-11.

22. Ibid., p. 15.

23. Paul Blake, “US Official: ‘IS making and using CW in Iraq and Syria’,” BBC News, September 11, 2015, <www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34211838>.