William Walker - Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Order

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Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Order

William Walker

First published July 2004 by Oxford University Press for the

International Institute for Strategic Studies, Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street,

Temple Place, London, WC2R 3DX

This reprint published by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN

For The International Institute for Strategic Studies

Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London, WC2R 3DX

www.iiss.org

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

Transferred to Digital Printing 2006

July 2004 The International Institute for Strategic Studies

Director John Chipman

Editor Tim Huxley

Copy Editor David Ucko

Production Simon Nevitt

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

ISBN 0-19-856841-X

ISSN 0567-932-X

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

Contents

Glossary

ABM	Anti-Ballistic Missile
ASEAN	Association of South-east Asian Nations
BJP	Bharatiya Janata Party
BTWC	Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
BWC	Biological Weapons Convention
CBW	Chemical and Biological Weapons
CFE	Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaties
CTBT	Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
CWC	Chemical Weapons Convention
FMCT	Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
IAEA	International Atomic Energy Agency
INF	Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
NPT	Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
NSG	Nuclear Suppliers Group
NNWS	Non-Nuclear-Weapon State
NWS	Nuclear-Weapon State
OPCW	Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
RMA	Revolution in Military Affairs
SDI	Strategic Defense Initiative
START I and II	Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I and II
UN	United Nations
UNMOVIC	UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
UNSC	UN Security Council
UNSCOM	UN Special Committee Mission
WTO	World Trade Organisation
WMD	Weapons of Mass Destruction

The modern preoccupation with international order grew, in substantial part, out of the experiences of war in the twentieth century. Left to its own devices, the state system was obviously incapable of providing protection against technological developments which gave aggressive actors so many possibilities in warfare. On the contrary, the state system appeared to foster mass violence through its inherently competitive nature and the states unique rights and abilities to mobilise technology for lethal purposes.

With the arrival of nuclear weapons, the preoccupation with international order assumed the quality of obsession. There had to be order for everyones survival. Ironically, through its very destructiveness, the nuclear weapon itself became a primary agent of survival by discouraging war during the East-West conflict. At the same time, nuclear technology was linked to economic progress through its potential for supplying energy in large quantity. Despite these benefits, it was immediately understood that nuclear weapons and associated technologies could not be let loose within the international system. Their diffusion needed to be constrained and their application controlled. How to practise that constraint and exercise that control effectively, legitimately and persuasively was a challenge that had to be faced.

The nuclear order constructed during the Cold War was always precarious and controversial. Nevertheless, an approach to order was established that carried wide support and enabled the carefully managed use of nuclear weapons for deterrence purposes to coexist with the determined pursuit of non-proliferation. With the end of the Cold War, the diplomacy that underlay this approach appeared capable of fostering greater protection against weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now including chemical and biological weapons (CBW) and indeed of dispatching them into the margins of international relations. But this trend turned out to be deceptive. After several years of apparent progress involving substantial arms reductions and extensions to the treaty-bound framework of restraint, order turned to disorder and a common direction into a common disorientation.

In the past few years, this international order has come to resemble a metaphorical Humpty Dumpty which has suffered a great fall and is unable to return to its perch.1 Events and trends that contributed to this fall can be readily identified: the Indian and Pakistani test explosions; the international disputes over missile defence and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty; the US turn against multilateralism; the breakdown of the United Nations Special Committee Mission (UNSCOM) in Iraq; the emergence of a more deadly terrorism exemplified by the 9/11 attacks; the subsequent wars on terrorism and military actions in Iraq; and the unearthing of covert transnational supply networks. These developments all occurred against a backdrop of dramatic changes in power structure after the Soviet Unions demise and of equally dramatic changes in US political and security strategies.

This descent into disorder needs to be arrested if more devastating wars and a crippling loss of ability to solve international problems, including grave environmental problems, are to be avoided. Although the recovery of order obviously encompasses much more than WMD, recent history indicates that to qualify as such, an international order must address the dangers arising from these technologies. A re-establishment of order cannot however be achieved merely by identifying disturbing events and trends and designing policies to alleviate them, important though that task may be. It has to be rooted in an understanding of international order and of the WMD order in our context and its historical construction and recent destabilisation. Above all, it requires an understanding of the nature and effectiveness of ordering strategies and of the forces shaping them in given periods.

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