Nunn-Lugar Program Hits 15; Revises WMD Priorities

By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative marks its 15th year in existence, it faces an evolving set of thorny challenges:  the specter of biological weapons, the potential for WMD smuggling and the rise in terrorist threats, according to U.S. officials (see GSN, Aug. 9).

The Defense Department anticipates expanding its global efforts “to secure dangerous pathogens and carry out surveillance of disease outbreaks that might be intentional,” Navy Cmdr. Bob Mehal, a Pentagon spokesman, told Global Security Newswire this week. 

Defense officials also aim to strengthen “partner countries’ capabilities to police their borders against WMD trafficking,” he said by e-mail (see GSN, June 4).

Mehal put both threats under the heading of “WMD on the move” and distinguished them from the Pentagon’s earlier threat reduction priorities, which primarily addressed WMD and related materials where they were stored.

The program — administered by the Defense, Energy, Commerce and State departments — is already working on WMD transit issues in the former Soviet Union, Mehal noted.  U.S. officials “will seek opportunities to work with partners elsewhere, as well,” he said.

To help secure Russian borders, “we are equipping over 100 sites with radiation detection equipment,” said Dave Huizenga, an official at the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

The United States and Russia recently completed a cost-sharing and workload agreement to upgrade security at 350 border crossings, and the two nations intend to complete the work by the end of 2011, he said this week (see GSN, June 1).

The Cooperative Threat Reduction program is undertaking similar efforts to thwart nuclear smuggling in the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said Huizenga, who serves as his agency’s assistant deputy administrator for international material protection and cooperation.

The growing role of terrorists has complicated the picture by expanding a shadowy underworld that is largely immune to the diplomatic, military and economic tools available for dealing with traditional nation-states (see GSN, July 26).

“In the past half-decade, we have become increasingly concerned about nonstate actors and the threat of WMD terrorism,” Huizenga said. 

Heightened attention to these emerging threats comes as the Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative’s original legislative sponsors prepare to celebrate 15 years of U.S. assistance in safeguarding and dismantling former Soviet missile stockpiles and weapons of mass destruction.

Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), now co-chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative, are scheduled to travel to Russia and Albania next week for a series of events related to the collaborative security measures. 

The two authored the so-called “Nunn-Lugar Act” in late 1991 that launched the Cooperative Threat Reduction program the following year.  Since then, the program has deactivated 6,982 strategic nuclear warheads and destroyed the following weapons platforms, among others: 653 ICBMs; 485 ICBM silos; 613 submarine-launched ballistic missiles; 436 SLBM launchers; 30 ballistic-missile-carrying nuclear submarines; 155 bomber aircraft; and 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles, according to a statement Lugar’s office released last week. 

Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan are now free of atomic weapons, after inheriting the world’s third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear arsenals following the Soviet collapse.

Since the program began, Nunn-Lugar funding also has underwritten research projects for 72,000 former weapon scientists, providing them work on peaceful initiatives, according to Lugar’s office.

The United States has spent $5.9 billion to date on Cooperative Threat Reduction, with the Bush administration eyeing a $348 million budget for fiscal 2008.  Program officials anticipate they will have spent a total $8.1 billion by fiscal 2013.

In taking the trip, Nunn and Lugar hope to advance “the continuation of the [Cooperative Threat Reduction] program in a way that’s productive for our national security and the security of the world,” Andy Fisher, Lugar’s spokesman, told GSN this week.

Huizenga, the National Nuclear Security Administration official, said ongoing work in Russia — the staple of Cooperative Threat Reduction initiatives — continues to pose some of the project’s greatest hurdles.

The agency aims to help its Russian counterparts design and install “affordable, cost-effective indigenous equipment and technology to reduce the risk of nuclear material theft” at 125 storage and research facilities, he said.  Upgrades are now in place at 91 sites.

“Our immediate challenge is to complete upgrades at all sites by the 2008 deadline set by Presidents [George W.] Bush and [Vladimir] Putin at the 2005 Bratislava Summit,” Huizenga said.  “Given that much of the work that is ongoing is located within Russia’s highly sensitive nuclear weapons complex, the amount of access and control over schedule is limited on the U.S. side.”

An additional worry is that many Russian nuclear sites lack a steady funding stream or systems for monitoring performance, which might limit how well the upgrades could be sustained, he said.  The two sides are working together on a number of levels to address the sustainability problem, he said.

Nunn and Lugar are expected to take part in a conference in Moscow next week addressing the future of arms control and cooperation on nuclear energy, according to Fisher.  A meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is slated for Aug. 28.  The two also plan to attend a number of celebrations, including one marking 200 years of U.S.-Russian relations and another saluting the Cooperative Threat Reduction’s 15-year anniversary, Fisher said.

Continuing a tradition of annual site visits to monitor the program, Nunn and Lugar plan to tour Russian nuclear material storage sites and ICBM destruction facilities.

On Aug. 30 the two are scheduled to see the Shchuchye chemical weapons disposal facility, which has been plagued by construction delays.  After investing more than $1 billion in the effort, Washington recently cut off construction funding, casting further doubt on the objective of eliminating Russia’s chemical weapons arsenal by April 2012 (see GSN, March 1).

Nunn and Lugar anticipate an Aug. 31 visit to Ukraine to observe maritime and border security operations on the Black Sea and along the border with Moldova, Fisher said.

The following day, the two former Senate colleagues are scheduled to travel to Albania, which this year became the first nation to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile under the Chemicals Weapons Convention (see GSN, July 12).

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by the National Journal Group.]

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