During the opening remarks of a recent South America UN Security Council Resolution 1540 meeting in Lima Peru, Mr. Gordon Duguid, a senior official of the Organization of American States, lauded Stimson’s Managing Across Boundaries program model for implementation. Said Mr. Duguid: “Resolution 1540…is an opportunity not simply for a governmental response to multidimensional nature of security threats, but also for a “whole of society” approach. Such an approach reaches beyond government ministries and international organizations, to include all those touched by pressing security and development challenges, including the private sector and civil society. The OAS is pursuing this path by developing public-private partnerships and working with NGOs like the Stimson Center.”
Speaking about the “dual use” 1540 implementation model, Mr. Duguid said that “[s]ince 2006 the OAS has recognized that effective implementation of Resolution 1540 required an innovative approach that serviced a wider array of national challenges and bridged the security/development divide. Needs such as youth gangs and violence, small arms and drug trafficking can be addressed through an innovative ‘dual-benefit’ assistance drawn from nonproliferation accounts to meet these priorities while simultaneously ensuring the nonproliferation of WMD. Recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all template with regards to a regional approach, such a modus operandi is logical because of the transnational nature of security concerns, as well as a pragmatic approach in terms of promoting peace, prosperity and people’s interests through strengthening democracy, security and development.”
Also presentating at the meeting was O’Neil Hamilton, Regional 1540 Coordinator for CARICOM, and Stimson Center visiting fellow. Find Mr. Hamilton’s presentation here.
More information on the Managing Across Boundaries program and its 1540 project, the Beyond Boundaries Initiative, can be found here.