Although nuclear material security has traditionally been seen as a transatlantic obsession, last week’s Nuclear Security Summit saw Asian countries assume a prominent role on numerous issues. And, with Seoul now designated as the host city for the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, the need for their leadership is becoming even clearer.
US-led efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials began in the mid-1990s with the Nunn-Lugar legislation and other Cooperative Threat Reduction efforts designed to eliminate surplus Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ensure that any WMD-related materials and technologies were stored more safely and securely. The G-8 countries then launched the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Mass Destruction at their 2002 annual summit in Kananaskis, Canada. Yet although the G-8 includes Japan, European countries and the United States have so far been the main financers of the Global Partnership, which has pledged almost $20 billion over 10 years to support WMD-related security projects. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism was also originally a G-8 creation, but has since expanded its membership to include many more countries than those involved in either the Global Partnership or the Nuclear Security Summit.
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