November 17, 2015
Dr. Philipp Bleek and Dr. Chen Kane
On November 9-10, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) and the Lugar Center held a workshop titled “Elimination of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) – Lessons Learned.” The workshop was part of a project supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) that aimed at assisting governments and international organizations to better prepare for future WMD elimination missions.
The workshop, led by Dr. Chen Kane, the director of the Middle East Nonproliferation Studies and Dr. Philipp Bleek, an assistant professor at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey and a fellow at CNS, engaged over forty government officials and nongovernmental experts. The workshop’s first day covered strategic, diplomatic, legal, technical, and inter- and intra-agency dynamics related to WMD elimination.
The second day covered six case studies (post-Soviet cooperative threat reduction, Iraq in the 1990s and 2003, South Africa, Libya, and Syria). The last session discussed future potential elimination cases and contingencies.
