Regional Approaches to Proliferation Prevention -- Demand for Conventional Weapons and WMD -- The Stanley Foundation

The Demand for Conventional Weapons, Missiles, and Weapons of Mass Destruction

The "demand side" of the proliferation equation includes an examination of regional viewpoints, especially the views and perceptions of rising middle powers, on factors such as:

Deterrence of aggression, including threats to territorial, political, or economic values
Strategic economic security, such as the role of technological and scientific capacity
The meaning of national autonomy, sovereignty, and independence in a globalized world

In most Western policy debates, it is assumed that states trying to acquire strategic weapons are doing so for largely aggressive aims. If the proliferation problem is described in this manner, then it is automatically true that nonproliferation measures will strengthen regional security and stability. Economic sanctions and military policy initiatives with a nonproliferation mission will help stabilize volatile regions because they are aimed at powers that unjustly seek regional dominance. The term "rogue state" in the US debate is meant to convey this interpretation of the proliferation problem.

However, many of the "usual suspects" for proliferation have pursued WMD and missile programs for avowedly defensive reasons: territorial integrity, sovereignty, deterrence of aggression, and defense against threats of aggression. In these cases, the reality is that two positive goals endorsed by the UN Charter are in a collision course with each other: the right to self defense (under the norm of state sovereignty) and the more general emphasis on cooperative, universal solutions to security problems. While it is true that nonproliferation treaty regimes espouse international norms agreed upon by every state in the UN system, it is also true that these regimes may sometimes undermine the inherent right to self-defense. In these situations, Western and global policies based purely on nonproliferation methods may exacerbate instabilities rather than ameliorate them. It is precisely this collision of equally legitimate international norms that the RAPP program hopes to address.