Ed. Note: ASA thanks our friend of many years, Dr. Ralf Trapp, for this very informative article on the OPCW Academic Forum that will take place in the Hague in September. Dr. Trapp Chairs the Program Committee for the Forum.
The OPCW Academic Forum
The Hague, 18-19 September 2007
Dr. Ralf Trapp
On 18-19 September 2007, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the Netherlands Institute for Foreign Relations (the Clingendael Institute) and the OPCW will co-host the 2007 OPCW Academic Forum. This is a first in a series of activities planned to provide for a more structured feedback mechanism to connect the academic world with the policy makers and treaty implementers in the field of chemical weapons disarmament and non-proliferation.
The Academic Forum was conceived as one of several activities of the OPCW to celebrate ten years of implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). It is one in a series of conferences and workshops organised by the OPCW and by governments of CWC States Parties, which looks at how the global chemical weapons ban is working, and how its operation can be further improved in the future. In the context of the activities organised by the OPCW itself, the Academic Forum complements another forum planned later in the year - the Industry and Protection Forum.
The Academic Forum also takes place alongside OPCW activities that are part of the preparations for the Second CWC Review Conference, scheduled for April 2008. In that context, work has begun in an open-ended working group of the States Parties to prepare the Second Review Conference. Meetings are being planned with chemical industries (in June), as well as with non-governmental organisations (in November), so as to broaden the basis of the preparations for this important milestone in the life of the CWC. A first opportunity for the scientific community to provide input for the review process was when the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) organised a workshop in Zagreb, Croatia, in April this year, to evaluate the impact of advances in science and technology on the CWC.
But the Academic Forum is not itself part of the preparations for the Second Review Conference. Instead, it is an attempt to develop a long-term relationship between the OPCW and the academic world - an informal "mechanism" that more regularly and effectively connects the OPCW to scholarly analysis and technical advice. It is not driven by one single event (although it was inspired by the Tenth CWC Anniversary) but meant to lead into a long-term dialogue between the domains of disarmament/non-proliferation and academia. The scope of this dialogue should not be restricted by the scope and provisions of the CWC itself, but it should allow to evaluate issues related to chemical weapons arms control in a wider perspective, recognising the CWC as one of the core multilateral treaties that address security issues related to weapons of mass destruction and other key threats to international security.
The objectives of the forum have been described as follows: The Forum aims to bring together leading academic experts, practitioners, diplomats and policy-makers. It examines the OPCW/CWC's history, the political and technical challenges it is confronted with today, as well as its place and role in the overall global non-proliferation network. Its objective is to demonstrate the OPCW as a successful actor in multilateralism and non-proliferation. In this way, the Forum contributes to the discussion of issues concerning (chemical) disarmament and the role of the OPCW/CWC during the next decade.
The forum will also discuss how the OPCW may adapt to the new security environment and the changing nature of chemical industry, including new chemicals and processes. Based on the papers that will be presented during the Forum and the discussions they bring about, forum proceedings will be published.
The forum will be organised into a combination of plenary sessions, four workshops and a multilateral diplomatic game.
For the plenary discussions, two eminent individuals have agreed to deliver keynote speeches and to share their experiences and views with regard to disarmament and non-proliferation of chemicals weapons and , in a more general sense, weapons of mass destruction: Rolf Ekeus from Sweden and Jayantha Dhanapala from Sri Lanka. Both will bring a wealth of first-hand experience in disarmament and non-proliferation to the table, combined with thoughtful analysis of policy choices and thorough understanding of multilateral processes.
The four workshops will facilitate in-depth discussions in major areas of CWC implementation (destruction of CW stockpiles; CW non-proliferation; impact of advances in science and technology on the CWC), as well as look at the mandates and functions of the OPCW in the future when CW disarmament will be more or less completed and the OPCW will need to redefine its role in an (almost) CW-free world. The workshops will be led by convenors, supported by rapporteurs who will summarize the main points from the workshop discussions for the benefit of all participants.
In the area of chemical weapons destruction, the forum will provide an opportunity to elaborate on the progress made in the completion of CW stockpile elimination, discuss how the OPCW should address possible problems with regard to the established deadlines, look at options for how OPCW could work with non-parties that are presumed to have (had) CW programs in the past and that may still have stockpiles, and discuss issues related to the destruction of old and abandoned chemical weapons.
The workshop dealing with non-proliferation issues will provide a framework for addressing the implementation of the CWC provisions in the fields of industry verification and national implementation, in the wider context of non-proliferation requirements including under Security Council Resolution 1540. The workshop will have to appreciate the developments in the chemical industry and in international trade in chemicals. That issue will also influence the discussions in the third workshop, dealing with advances in science and technology. Based on the results of the IUPAC study on advances in science and technology, as well as other similar studies and the report of the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board, the forum will allow to further discuss the impact that the convergence between biology and chemistry and the rapid advances in enabling technologies have on the functioning of the CWC.
The fourth workshop will ask whether the OPCW's roles will (have to) change after most of the chemical weapons will have been destroyed. Is there a future for challenge inspections and industry verification in a CW-free world? Should the OPCW perform its remaining tasks in its same form or is the suggestion relevant that simplification of the international set of agencies etc., that deal with non-proliferation could create a better acceptance by industry and ease related processes? What will be OPCW's role with regard to incidents involving toxic chemicals other than currently covered by its mandate (CW use, CW terrorism, non-deliberate releases)? These are some of the questions that will require an answer in coming years, and the forum will help initiating some of these debates.
The third element of the forum is a multilateral game that has been developed by the Clingendael Institute as a negotiation exercise to highlight important issues that the OPCW is facing in the coming decade. The game will enable to test hypotheses with regard to how central issues confronting the OPCW may be approached, help identifying priorities and strategies, and provide insights on where there may be common ground in resolving some of the unresolved issues faced by the OPCW. Whilst workshop chairs and rapporteurs withdraw to their quarters to draw the conclusions from the discussions of their respective workshops, the other participants will be invited to take part in this "hexagame" built around 6 States Parties that represent major stakeholders, and around a range of thorny issues that the OPCW needs to address.
After the forum, the keynote and workshop papers and the main findings from the discussions and work in plenary, the workshops and the multilateral game will be published in forum proceedings.
Further details about the forum have now been placed on the OPCW homepage at www.opcw.org or via www.opcwacademicforum.org). Individuals who are interested in participating in the forum can register through the forum website. But the forum website is more than an advertising and registration tool - it will continue to be in use also after the 2007 forum, and offer an internet based networking tool to continue the exchange of views and documents on the issue addressed. Registered users are invited to share views and files, discuss CWC related topics and register for future events.
During the 2007 Academic Forum in The Hague, the possibilities of the website as a networking tool and as a network of scientific support to the OPCW will be demonstrated. After the Forum, visitors will find on the website papers and presentations from the forum, but also new contributions from the academic community.
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