Implementing the Chemical Weapons Ban: A Status Report

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Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker, a senior fellow specializing in chemical and
biological weapons at the Monterey Institute’s Center for
Nonproliferation Studies and the author of War of Nerves: Chemical
Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda, will join us for a discussion of
the current challenges facing the implementation of the Chemical
Weapons Convention (CWC). An
international treaty that seeks to eliminate all existing stockpiles of
chemical weapons and to ban their future development, production,
transfer, and use, the CWC has been in force for nine years and
currently has 178 member states. Next April 29 is the treaty deadline
for the destruction of all chemical weapons stockpiles. Yet of the six
countries that have declared stockpiles, only one — Albania — is
likely to meet the 2007 deadline. The two largest possessors, the
United States and Russia, will probably not finish the job even with
the one-time, five-year extension permitted by the treaty. Dr. Tucker
will discuss this and other challenges facing CWC implementation. In
his view, the world today is at a crossroads that could lead either to
the abolition of these cruel and indiscriminate weapons or to their
continued proliferation to rogue states and terrorist organizations.
“Security for a New Century” is a bipartisan study group for Congress.
We meet regularly with U.S. and international policy professionals to
discuss the post Cold War and post 9/11 security environment. All
discussions are off-the-record. It is not an advocacy venue.

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