Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (Occasional Paper, Number 7)
Abstract
This occasional paper from the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction examines the evolution of U.S. perceptions of the WMD threat and major responses to that threat from the Clinton administration through the first few months of the Obama administration. It also considers why our worst fears for WMD use and proliferation have not been realized and anticipates some of the major WMD challenges that lie ahead. An important basis for the paper are the presentations and discussions conducted during the WMD Center's eighth annual symposium, "WMD Proliferation and Use: Have We Been Effective, Lucky, or Overly Concerned?" held at NDU on May 7-8, 2008. Nearly 20 years have passed since the United States began worrying in earnest about the risks of regional weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation. In the run-up to Operation Desert Storm in 1990, the Department of Defense (DoD) had no systematic understanding of or approach to prosecuting a regional war against an adversary armed with and prepared to use nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. The improvisational efforts to prepare for possible Iraqi WMD use gave way after the war to a concerted effort during the Bill Clinton administration to prepare the Armed Forces to confront WMD-armed regional adversaries, while working to defuse such threats through diplomacy -- coercive and otherwise. The George W. Bush administration brought to the WMD problem a different set of assumptions and beliefs that led to new areas of emphasis and new approaches, many of them shaped by the need, after the attacks of 2001, to confront more directly the threat of WMD use by violent nonstate actors. The Obama administration's principal departures from the Bush administration's approach to WMD issues are its greater emphasis on traditional, treaty-based disarmament and nonproliferation, its reorientation of BMD programs, and how it will ensure the reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent for as long as it is needed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA514526
Entities
People
- John P. Caves Jr.
- Paul I. Bernstein
- W. S. Carus
Organizations
- National Defense University