Surmounting the Obstacles to Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540

Abstract

UN Security Council Resolution 1540, which binds all states to implement generic nonproliferation obligations, has been hampered in its effectiveness by serious delays and problems in implementing its obligations. Getting nations to carry out its requirements depends on applying a division of labor strategy to the problem. Such a strategy would be based on the Security Council's 1540 Committee and other participants—such as international and regional organizations, regimes, state actors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—all working together to maximize their competences toward applying the resolution. To create and maintain momentum, those involved must improve their efforts to address the various challenges to such implementation. The Security Council should strengthen the structural foundation of the 1540 Committee, and the 1540 Committee should act as a clearinghouse for assistance with implementing the resolution. Those bodies that provide assistance should make more help available to more states and cooperate closely with the 1540 Committee. NGOs and regional organizations should pressure advanced states to fulfill the resolution's requirements with the necessary urgency, and individual states and international organizations should explore ways to accommodate frequently articulated grievances that dilute the legitimacy of Resolution 1540.

Keywords:

• UN Security Council
• Resolution 1540
• nonproliferation

Notes

1. Steve Coll, “The Atomic Emporium: Abdul Qadeer Khan and Iran's Race to Build the Bomb,” New Yorker, August 7 & 14, 2006), pp. 50–63.

2. See UN Security Council Resolution 1540, S/Res/1540, April 28, 2004, <domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/f45643a78fcba719852560f6005987ad/bc94a057247ad11085256e8500541fe5!OpenDocument>.

3. Expert formally affiliated with the 1540 Committee (name withheld by request), personal interview with the author, New York, NY, May 9, 2006.

4. Joseph C. Bristol et al., “A New Urgency for Nonproliferation: Implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540,” Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, January 2007, pp. 10–11.

5. UN Security Council, 4950th Meeting, S/PV.4950, April 22, 2004, <www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/1540%20SPV%204950.pdf>. See also, UN Security Council, 5635th Meeting, “Security Council Affirms Determination to Strengthen Cooperation Aimed at Countering Nuclear Chemical, Biological Weapons Proliferation,” SC/8964, February 23, 2007, <www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc8964.doc.htm>.

6. For a similar argument see Olivia Bosch and Peter van Ham, “UNSCR 1540: Its Future and Contribution to Global Non-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism,” in Olivia Bosch and Peter van Ham, eds., Global Non-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism: The Impact of UNSCR 1540 (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2007), pp. 207–226.

7. Two 1540 Committee experts (names withheld by request), joint personal interview with the author, New York, NY, January 22, 2007.

8. Peter Crail, “Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540: A Risk-Based Approach,” Nonproliferation Review 13 (July 2006), pp. 355–399.

9. Chairman Peter Burian, 1540 Committee, “Briefing by the Chairman of the Security Council Committee Established Pursuant to Resolution 1540 (2004),” February 21, 2006, <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/doc/statement.chair.SC.21feb06.doc>; see also, “Report of the Committee Established Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1540,” S/2006/257, April 25, 2006. 1540 Committee, Guidelines for the Preparation of National Reports Pursuant to Resolution 1540 (2004), <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/naprepare.html>.

10. 1540 Committee, Legislative Database, <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/list-legdb.html>; 1540 Committee, Directory of Assistance, <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/dir-assist.html>.

11. UN Security Council, 5635th Meeting, “Security Council Affirms Determination.”

12. Ambassador Peter Burian, “Talking Points for the Joint Briefing by the Security Council Committees Established Pursuant to Resolutions 1267 (1999), 1373 (2001) and 1540 (2004) to the Security Council,” May 22, 2007, <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/doc/statement.chair.SC.22may07.doc>; Elizabeth Turpen, “Non-State Actors and Nonproliferation: The NGO Role in Implementing UNSCR 1540,” Henry L. Stimson Center, Cooperative Nonproliferation Program, August 6, 2007, <www.stimson.org/cnp/?SN=CT200708061436>.

13. The reports are accessible at <disarmament2.un.org/Committee1540/report.html>.

14. Two 1540 Committee experts (names withheld by request), joint personal interview with the author, New York, NY, January 22, 2007.

15. CTC, <www.un.org/sc/ctc/>; CTED, <www.un.org/sc/ctc/cted.shtml>. For information on the revitalization of the CTC through the creation of the CTED, see Alistair Millar et al., “Recommendations for Improving the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee's Assessment and Assistance Coordination Function,” Fourth Freedom Forum and Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, September 2005.

16. Bosch and van Ham, “UNSCR 1540.”

17. Bristol et al., “A New Urgency for Nonproliferation.”

18. Turpen, “Non-State Actors and Nonproliferation.”

19. The European Union Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) Nuclear Safety Program, for example, has been specifically directed to former Soviet states in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. See European Commission, “The EU's Relations with Eastern Europe & Central Asia,” <ec.europa.eu/external_relations/ceeca/tacis/>.

20. See, for example, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), “Supporting the Effective Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004)/Corrected Reissue,” FSC.DEC/7/05/Corr.1, November 30, 2005, <www.osce.org/documents/fsc/2005/11/17407_en.pdf>.

21. “Report of the Ad Hoc Committee Established by General Assembly Resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996, International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism,” UN General Assembly document A/59/766, April 4, 2005; “Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,” UN General Assembly, September 8, 2006, <www.un.org/terrorism/strategy-counter-terrorism.html>.

22. Richard T. Cupitt, “Export Controls and Implementing UNSC Resolution 1540 (2004),” presentation at Carnegie Conference on Non-Proliferation, Washington, DC, November 7–8, 2005.

23. Thomas A. Wuchte, senior advisor, U.S. 1540 Coordinator, Bureau of International Security & Nonproliferation, Office of Counterproliferation Initiatives, U.S. Department of State, personal interview by author, Washington, DC, January 9, 2007.

24. The G8 Heiligendamm Statement on Non-Proliferation (2007) also suggests expanding cooperative projects to foster implementation of Resolution 1540. The statement is accessible at <www.g-8.de/nsc_true/Content/EN/Artikel/__g8-summit/anlagen/heiligendamm-statement-on-non-proliferation,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/heiligendamm-statement-on-non-proliferation>.

25. Crail, “Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540.”

26. Statement by the G8 Leaders, “The G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction,” 2002, <www.g8.gc.ca/2002Kananaskis/kananaskis/globpart-en.asp>.

27. Brian D. Finlay and Elizabeth Turpen, “The ‘Next One Hundred’ Project: Constructing a Global Toolkit to Support States-at-Risk and Strengthen the International Nonproliferation Regime,” Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington, DC, 2006, <www.stimson.org/ctr/pdf/100Description.pdf>.

28. Crail, “Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540.”

29. See, for example, Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, “Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms,” Final Report, Stockholm, Sweden, June 1, 2006, <www.wmdcommission.org/files/Weapons_of_Terror.pdf>. See also Wade Boese, “Implications of UN Security Council Resolution 1540,” presentation to the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management Panel Discussion, March 15, 2005, <www.armscontrol.org/events/20050315_1540.asp>.

30. 1540 Committee, Directory of Assistance.