Nov. 1, 2006

Nuclear U-Turns: Learning from the South Korean and Taiwanese Rollback

South Korea and Taiwan’s decisions to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons represent two of the most important cases of nuclear rollback during the Cold War.1 Despite their dangerous neighborhood and precarious security environment, these two U.S. allies reversed their nuclear programs in the face of tremendous American pressure. These cases

July 1, 2005

Can al Qaeda Be Deterred from Using Nuclear Weapons?

This occasional paper pursues four different but complementary approaches to dissect the issue of whether acquisition of NBC/R weapons will mean employment for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

May 1, 2005

Iraq and After: Taking the Right Lessons for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction

This paper primarily focuses on Iraq; however, it also seeks to draw lessons from experiences in libya and Iran to understand better how proliferators think about WMD; the challenges in assessing the status and sophistication of developing world WMD programs; the contours of the emerging international proliferation landscape; and the efficacy of various policy instruments available to the United States for dealing with these so-called ultimate weapons.

Feb. 1, 2005

Combating WMD: Challenges for the Next 10 Years

One need only glance at newspaper headlines each morning to appreciate that the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat environment is dynamic. President George W. Bush has identifi ed WMD in the hands of rogue states and terrorists as the greatest security threat to the United States. The pace of WMD events in recent years has been truly

Dec. 1, 2004

Eliminating Adversary WMD: What's at Stake?

This Occasional Paper discusses the challenges and the lessons learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom concerning WMD elimination.

Oct. 1, 2004

Eliminating Adversary WMD: Lessons for Future Conflicts

As tensions between Iraq and the United States worsened in mid-to-late 2002 and as preparations began for Operation Iraqi Freedom, policymakers and military planners began to wrestle with the challenges posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Indeed, Iraqi defiance and deception in the face of United Nations (UN) sanctions, coupled with

April 1, 2004

"At the Crossroads:" Counterproliferation and the New National Security Strategy

The continued proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) represents the most serious threat to U.S. national security and an enormous challenge for the entire international community. In the hands of rogue states, failing states, or substate terrorist groups, these weapons threaten not only U.S. forces, friends, and allies abroad, but also

April 1, 2003

Toward a National Biodefense Strategy

The United States is re-learning an important lesson in the first decade of the 21st century: adversaries may attack the United States, its interests, or those of friends and allies with biological weapons (BW). The last century witnessed the purported use of glanders by the Germans in World War I and the use of dysentery, plague, and typhus by the

April 1, 2003

The Best Defense: Counterproliferation and U.S. National Security Policy

Neither terrorism nor the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are new phenomena; states in key regions of U.S. security concern have for several years aggressively pursued nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons and missile capabilities or have engaged in or sponsored terrorism. What is new is the prospective conjuncture of these

Nov. 1, 2002

Anthrax in America: A Chronology and Analysis of the Fall 2001 Anthrax Attacks

This paper describes the 2001 anthrax attacks on the United States and provides a one-year snapshot of the attacks and subsequent response.

Dec. 1, 2001

Adversary Use of NBC Weapons: A Neglected Challenge

This article describes how thinking regarding how an adversary might use nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical weapons against the United States changed in the last decade of the 20th century.

Nov. 1, 2001

The Counterproliferation Imperative: Meeting Tomorrow's Challenges

This monograph describes the current state of the field with respect to the intelligence, policy, operational, and programmatic issues related to counterproliferation. It seeks to present the counterproliferation imperative within the broader context of strategy and deterrence developing in the Bush administration and highlights key contemporary issues. Finally, the monograph suggests areas for future emphasis in improving our understanding of the NBC threat in further developing appropriate responses.

March 1, 2001

Beyond Nonproliferation: Secondary Supply, Proliferation Management, and U.S. Foreign Policy

This article addresses both the supply motivations and the behavior of the three most significant secondary suppliers of proliferation technology (Russia, China and North Korea) as well as various U.S. policy responses designed to mitigate these activities.

Feb. 1, 2001

Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: the Illicit Use of Biological Arms in the 20th century

This working paper is an updated study of research that began in 1998; it provides a descriptive analysis of the illicit use of biological agents by criminals and terrorists in the 20th century and draws on a series of specific case studies.

Oct. 1, 2000

China Rising: New Challenges to the U.S. Security Posture

This article describes how the nature, scope and viability of the strategic relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States has emerged as a key security policy issue.

Dec. 1, 1999

DOD and Consequence Management: Mitigating the Effects of Chemical and Biological Attack

This article aims to analyze the potential threat of chemical and biological weapons to the U.S. It also offers recommendations on how to approach these situations and respond appropriately.