These essays are products of the Stimson Center’s Multilateral Verification Project which is made possible by grant support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Multilateral Verification Project is designed to promote constructive approaches for international security problems and multilateral negotiations. Our work has focused primarily on useful applications for “Open Skies” and constructive ways to strengthen a prospective Chemical Weapons Convention. Our goals are to generate understanding and appreciation of problem-solving approaches that are practical, equitable, prompt, and as resistant to manipulation as possible.
We also wish to call attention to multilateral verification proposals that are likely to cause more harm than good. Luncheon meetings are held in Washington where concept papers are presented and discussed by representatives of the executive and legislative branches, the diplomatic corps, non-governmental organizations, and the media. These papers and notes of the meetings are then distributed to government offices and research institutes.