Lessons Learned from Eliminating WMD

If by some chance you haven’t already heard, the Nonproliferation Review is holding an event at the Washington, DC offices of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) this coming Monday, September 12 from 1 to 3 pm local time. We’ll be introducing a new special double issue on lessons learned from the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. 

Four of the authors will be presenting their findings and taking questions: Chen Kane, Rebecca Hersman, Robert Peters, and Philipp Bleek.

I’m also looking forward to the event because it offers me the rare privilege (for me!) of introducing Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller as our keynote speaker. U/S Gottemoeller, who knows a few things about WMD elimination, to put it mildly, is making the rounds of a Washington, DC farewell tour before NATO claims her for the foreseeable future. We’re pleased to be on her agenda.

The new issue, it’s safe to say, offers the most comprehensive collection of articles on the subject to date. Its case studies range over a quarter-century of experiences, from Cooperative Threat Reduction in the former Soviet states to the recent multinational undertaking to remove chemical weapons from Syria and destroy them at sea. A set of unique thematic articles digs into the strategic, interagency and intra-agency, legal, diplomatic, and technological aspects of WMD elimination. And if that weren’t enough, Sen. Richard Lugar, of Nunn-Lugar fame, has contributed the foreword.

RSVPs close on September 8 and the room is getting full, so sign up now! And if you can’t make it in person, fear not; there will be a livestream.

Credit where due: This special issue is the culmination of a study sponsored by the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (PASCC), which is sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Here’s the event announcement again, just in case you missed it.

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On a personal note: I had a walk-on part in the PASCC-sponsored study and appear in the special issue as a co-author to the introduction. The issue as a whole was prepared under the guidance of the redoubtable Rhianna Tyson Kreger in her finale as acting editor of NPR. But I’m also NPR’s new editor, so this event is in effect my debut as well.

Oh, yeah. Readers of this blog will notice that I’ve been away for awhile. I’m back.