ASA visited the CBRN professionals of the Defence Policy and Planning and Political Affairs Divisions of NATO’s WMD Centre - the heart of NATO CBRN readiness. This is the first report in a NATO series in which we plan to cover the important issues in NATO CBRN readiness.

The WMD Initiative and The Weapons of Mass Destruction Centre

Introduction

          In preparation for the Washington Summit (23-25 April 1999), NATO launched a new initiative designed to develop political and military capabilities that would allow the Alliance to address more effectively the challenges posed by the proliferation of NBC weapons and their means of delivery.
          The WMD Initiative should be viewed in the context of the Alliance’s approach to proliferation issues, which aims to focus appropriate attention on WMD risks, and to co-ordinate the activities of the various NATO bodies involved in proliferation matters. Under the Initiative, the following tasks were mandated:
• to ensure a more vigorous, structured debate at NATO leading to strengthening the common understanding among Allies on WMD issues and how to respond to them;
• to improve the quality and quantity of intelligence and information-sharing among Allies on proliferation issues;
• to support the development of a public information strategy by Allies to increase awareness of proliferation issues and the Allies’ efforts to support non-proliferation processes;
• to enhance existing NATO programmes that increase military readiness to operate in a WMD environment and to counter WMD threats;
• to strengthen the process of information exchange on Allies’ national programmes of bilateral WMD destruction and assistance;
• to enhance the possibilities for Allies to assist one another in the protection of their civilian populations against WMD risks.
          The WMD Initiative seeks to integrate the political and military aspects of Alliance efforts in the area of WMD and to complement, not supplant, existing international regimes and arms control efforts responding to proliferation.
           One of the main outcomes of the Initiative was the establishment of a Weapons of Mass Destruction Centre (WMD Centre) in May 2000.
          The Centre employs three different kinds of experts. The first group consists of political experts who are educated in NATO’s political process; the second group consists of intelligence experts from the International Military Staff, and the national experts, who are experts in various aspects of WMD and who bring a multi-disciplinary mixture of political, defence, and military expertise to the Centre, make up the third group. It also includes unconventional weapons experts and force protection experts.

The Centre’s Tasks

          The WMD Centre has several defined tasks, as follows:
• to support the Council and Alliance structures dealing with WMD proliferation in their work in the political area and in the defence area, for example concerning force protection issues;
• to create and serve as a database and repository for relevant information and intelligence on WMD-related issues for input and use by all Allies;
• to prepare expert briefings on WMD for Council and Alliance structures for use during meetings with countries and organisations outside NATO;
• to maintain the Matrix of national and bilateral WMD destruction and management assistance programmes;
• to develop briefings, fact sheets and other information documents on WMD issues, that can be presented to a wider public audience, and support to international control regimes and initiatives that concern WMD issues.

Prague Initiatives

          At the Prague Summit, (Nov 2002) Allies agreed to enhance the Alliance’s defence capabilities against WMD. These NBC Defence Initiatives from Prague are concrete and critical elements in developing a NATO strategic approach towards a NATO NBC Defence that relies on credible NBC Defence capabilities. They are currently being implemented. The WMD Centre was closely involved with developing two of them; the “Virtual Centre of Excellence for NBC Weapons Defence” and the “NATO Virtual Biological and Chemical Defence Stockpile”.

WMD Centre supports international WMD control initiatives.

          NATO has a well-established programme of substantial contacts with numerous countries outside NATO, for example the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), and the Mediterranean Dialogue. The policy of NATO is to further deepen relations with its Partners, and the WMD Centre is very much involved in this work. With some of these Partners, NATO has a specific relationship, for example with Russia and the Ukraine. The WMD Centre assisted in the NATO-Russia and NATO-Ukraine consultations on WMD and non-proliferation issues at the expert level.
          The WMD Centre experts exchange information with other international organisations, such as OSCE, WHO, UN, and the EU, with respect to WMD and non-proliferation issues.

Exercises

          The Centre contributes to planning and developing scenarios in high level crisis management exercises, such as the CMX, during which the political and defence consultations and decision making processes between Allied governments and NATO headquarters are exercised, and high level staff are trained. CMXs are NATO-wide political/military exercises, with emphasis given to exercising measures and procedures, involving Council and supporting NATO bodies, as well as NATO Capitals. They allow for a wide range of objectives regarding NATO’s overall crisis management functions.

Editor’s Note: ASA would like to thank the all pro team of the WMD Centre - starting with Ted Whiteside, the boss and the individual who put the Centre together. To Cees Wolterbeek, Alex Schneider, Henri Garrigue, and many others and to Andrzej Toma who put everything together for the pre-, trans and post meetings and information transfer. Without his time and efforts this series on NATO would never have started. Many thanks Andrzej