WMD: real and present danger to Europe

By Dana Spinant

Date: 06/11/03

EUROPE and the United States must get their act together to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) because it is "only a matter of time until terrorist networks acquire such weapons", two leading former officials in the US administration have warned.

Michele Flournoy and Robert Einhorn, senior fellows at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), insisted the threat was very real. Speaking to journalists in Brussels this week, they claimed that huge quantities of material that can be used for building nuclear, biological or chemical weapons are either unaccounted for or are being kept in unsafe conditions.

Sites with radioactive material or laboratories containing samples of anthrax or smallpox are secured by "little more than one guardian" in Russia and the former Soviet countries.

Although "the Europeans are not worried about a terrorist attack", Flournoy said, Europe can be "both the target and the basis for the preparation" of such a terrifying strike.

The pair acknowledged that it is harder to get warnings about the danger of weapons of mass destruction taken seriously following the allegations that dossiers were "sexed up" to justify the invasion of Iraq. They fear this will undermine the cause for fighting the proliferation of such weapons.

In order to increase awareness of the threat among European decision-makers, the CSIS plans to organize a simulation of such an attack for EU and NATO officials in Brussels next April or May.

Denying that this is "trying to get it down the Europeans' throats", Flournoy, a former high-ranking official in the Pentagon, insisted that Europe "needs to be educated about this real danger".

A European Commission official reacted by pointing out that Washington itself had failed to sign up to international conventions and treaties aimed at controlling proliferation of WMD. "Isn't the US setting a bad example?" she asked.

For Einhorn, an assistant secretary for non-proliferation at the Department of State until 2001, "multilateral instruments are necessary but not sufficient. A supplement is needed". He urged Europeans and Americans to release more funding to tackle the threat.

The 2002 G-8 summit had pledged to raise &036;20 billion to fight WMD proliferation and, while the US plans to contribute &036;10bn over the next decade, the EU is committing only &036;1 billion. He said both amounts were insufficient.

As well as stumping up more, the G-8 countries should focus their efforts on securing nuclear material in Russia and on netting the deadly chemical and biological agents in research laboratories that are not accounted for, he added.

The two experts admitted that even though Europe and the US agree on the danger of WMD proliferation, they differ on how to meet this challenge.

The real Europe/US divergence was on the means of combating proliferation, said Einhorn, with the US preferring a more "muscular" approach, such as pre-emptive strikes. But he claimed the US would not use a military option against states such as North Korea, which are alleged to be developing nuclear weapons.

Fournoy expressed dismay that the hostility triggered by the Iraq crisis was preventing Europe and the US from working together properly. "Moving in the right direction is not enough. It is now a matter of speed," she warned.

Two senior fellows at the (US) Centre for Strategic and International Studies have warned that Europe and the United States must act together to fight the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They believe it is only a matter of time before terrorists obtain such weapons.