One of the greatest challenges to U.S. national security is the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) falling into the hands of those who would use them indiscriminately against the U.S. homeland, interests abroad, or partners and allies.¹ It is not difficult to imagine how terrorists might eagerly use a weapon that could kill hundreds or thousands, or how much a terrorist network would pay for such a weapon.²

While alarming, the most immediate threat is not that a fully assembled nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon would somehow change hands. Rather, the illicit transfer of components, technologies, specialized industrial...

This chapter lays the groundwork for the following chapters, which describe in detail the four-step process for building regional BPC approaches for combating WMD. It also provides the arguments for why a new approach to BPC for combating WMD is needed in the first place. It begins by briefly outlining the strategic guidance for BPC for combating WMD and then continues by defining key concepts employed in this monograph, namely security cooperation and BPC. Next, an overview is presented of the current state of BPC for combating WMD activities, what we call a “proliferation of initiatives,” which has resulted in...

This chapter, along with the next two, attempts to lay out three rather difficult questions in a way that will prove meaningful to DoD planners, program managers, and implementers. These key questions are intended to help guide the discussion in developing regional BPC for combating WMD approaches relative to DoD security cooperation efforts:

Where does the United States act and with whom should it partner?

What does the United States do and how should it do it?

How does the United States know that it has done the right things with the right partners in the right ways?

To answer...

As discussed previously, it is important to identify and characterize the WMD threat, from both the United States’ and the partner country’s perspective. It also is important to understand thewillingnessof candidate partner countries to work with the United States and their currentcapacityto combat WMD threats. The key question this chapter addresses is: “What should the United States do and how should it do it?” To answer this question, this chapter discusses steps two and three of developing regional approaches to BPC for combating WMD: working with potential partners, and identifying relevant BPC ways and means.

Chapter...

The fourth step in developing regional approaches to BPC for combating WMD focuses on assessing the effectiveness of BPC activities. DoD military departments, COCOMs, and support agencies are required by OSD to assess the effectiveness of their security cooperation programs and activities against OSD and COCOM objectives. But DoD planners currently do not have a robust assessment framework in place to address this requirement in a comprehensive manner (i.e., within and across the various programs it controls). Thus, DoD entities need a way to more fully understand how their activities support U.S. national security, OSD, and COCOM-level priorities and a...

An approach to BPC for combating WMD is defined at the strategic level as a mix of types of activities that collectively address combating WMD ends in a region. Successful partner capacity building uses the right mix of activities, sequenced in the most appropriate way as to allow for the sustainability of the capacity provided. To ensure the approach will have the desired effects, DoD should pursue a number of reinforcing activities. First, it is critical for U.S. policymakers and program managers to develop and implement an effective and coordinated strategic communications plan that will reinforce key concepts. An effective...