Turtle Bay Security Roundtable: Navigating the Sanctions Regime, Promoting Proliferation Prevention

December 05, 2011

Over the last quarter century, globalization has revolutionized the international system. Global trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and the rapid flow of goods, services, information, and money have increased economic opportunities worldwide and, in turn, helped better the overall human condition. For example, only in the last five years, more than half a billion people have escaped the grinding poverty associated with living on $1.25 a day or less. However, at the same time, the growth in illicit networks and activities, along with other undercurrents of globalization, has increased the potential for widespread proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to nefarious actors. WMD proliferation not only threatens an increasingly violent future, but a WMD incident anywhere in the world also promises to reverse entire benefits of globalization itself.

As such, today, December 05, 2011, the Permanent Missions of Japan and Poland to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Stimson Center, are hosting a roundtable meeting for an in-depth discussion on the proliferation dilemma with a regional focus. The event is a follow-up to the May 31, 2011 day-long conference hosted by the Permanent Missions of Japan, Poland, and Turkey to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Stimson Center, on the proliferation challenges facing the international community today.  The purpose of the May meeting, which featured UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, was to explore the linkages between security and development - how tactics to overcome security challenges can also help further development objectives.  Panelists and participants focused specifically on how disarmament and nonproliferation capacity-building can reinforce global economic development and sustainable economic growth.

On December 05, regional experts, UN Committee officials, industry representatives, and others participating in "The Turtle Bay Security Roundtable" will explore the benefits of applying targeted innovative regional approaches to nonproliferation and capacity-building. The idea being that a region-focused strategy is best equipped to tap into real needs and overlapping security and development interests on the ground.

In addition to enhancing the global nonproliferation regime, participants will also explore the effective implementation of current nonproliferation efforts, focusing on Iran and North Korea, while also incorporating recent relevant developments in Libya. The inclusion of industry representatives in the meeting will be particularly important in order to highlight the challenges of implementing effective export and border control measures as well as the need for international cooperation.

By considering proliferation a threat to security as well as to global development, participants will be able to look at the adverse effects of proliferation as a whole. As such, by recognizing the benefit that nonproliferation efforts can have toward economic growth and stability, participants will be able to explore innovative opportunities to address the wide range of concerns facing the international community related to the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

To download the agenda, please click here.

To read a brief summary of the event, please click here.

For additional information, please contact Esha Mufti at emufti@stimson.org