Expanding the Proliferation Security Initiative: A Legal and Policy Analysis

Abstract

This paper will explore the history, mission, and goals of the PSI, its principles and activities, and the international and domestic legal authorities under which it operates. It will then highlight the shortcomings of the initiative, including a lack of understanding among participant states of what items headed to which end-users are subject to interdiction as well as weak international legal authority for conducting interdiction operations on the high seas and in international airspace and seizing proliferation-sensitive shipments. It will then recommend measures to overcome these weaknesses, to generating increased participation in PSI activities from member states, and to encourage non-member states to join the initiative. It will conclude by explaining how the PSI is better suited to counteracting proliferation threats from smuggling operations and non-state actors, rather than inter se proliferation among states.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA557018

Entities

People

  • Philip E. Johnson

Organizations

  • Booz Allen Hamilton

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arms Control
  • Arms Control Treaties
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Government Procurement
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Energy
  • Public Administration
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • International Relations and European Studies

Technology Areas

  • Space