pacific forum History of Pacific Forum

Issues & Insights Vol. 06 – No. 07

The Pacific Forum devotes considerable effort to fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). As secretariat of the U.S. Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (USCSCAP), the Pacific Forum chairs (along with CSCAP Singapore) the CSCAP Study Group on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Asia Pacific. During the life of the Study Group, it has become clear that there is a gap between the rhetorical commitment by Asia Pacific governments to fighting the spread of WMD and their actions to accomplish that goal. There are many reasons for the inaction, but the most important seems to be a failure on the part of regional governments to appreciate the threat posed by such weapons. For them, WMD are not a pressing security concern; most typically, it is someone else’s problem.