Is all lost regarding establishing weapons of mass destruction free zone in the Middle East?

May 27, 2015

    By Tiara Shaya – Whenever I am asked what topic of research I focus on, the response is usually the same. “You know that will never happen, right?” The long aspired to and elusive goal of establishing a weapons of mass destruction free zone in the Middle East is generally seen as unrealistic, a naïve vision that only the inexperienced or perhaps highly liberal-minded person would ascribe to. The Middle East is, ultimately, the only region where all...

Saving the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone Process

April 21, 2015

  By Karim Kamel – Those who greatly oppose the idea of the Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (MEWMDFZ) and those who strongly want to impose it are ready to engage in a finger-pointing process about why the Helsinki Conference has not taken place by the 2015 Review Conference (RevCon) of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). If both sides proceed with this outlook, the MEWMDFZ initiative, the people of the Middle East, as...

Event: Iran Nuclear Talks: Truths and Tall Tales from Tehran and Tel-Aviv

January 31, 2015

James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey A A CNS invites you to a special event A A A Iran Nuclear Talks: Truths and Tall Tales from Tehran and Tel-Aviv A A with A Ori Rabinowitz, PhD, author of “Bargaining on Nuclear Tests” A A and Ariane Tabatabai, Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown University A A Moderator: Chen Kane, PhD, Middle East Projects Manager, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies A A A When: Wednesday,...

The false promise of a piecemeal approach to a WMD-free Middle East

March 13, 2014

  By Bilal Y. Saab – Almost two decades have passed since the Middle East Resolution – agreed by the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – called to rid the region of all weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Yet the Middle East remains a heavily militarised theatre of conflict awash with such capabilities, and is still very far from the goal of disarmament.   There is no single reason why regional states...

Iran and Israel: beyond red lines and blue jeans

February 3, 2014

    By Aviv Melamud and Ariane Tabatabai – Iran-Israeli relations have been on a collision course since the Islamic Republic of Iran’s inception, thirty-five years ago this February. While the two peoples, Iranians and Jews, have a long shared history, harking back to the Persian King Cyrus (Koresh), a key figure in both of their histories, the Revolution in Iran has shifted the relationship between the State of Israel and Iran from complicated to open hostility. Since the 1990s...

Was Arafat poisoned by polonium?

December 3, 2013

      By Dr. Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress – President Yasser Arafat, the former president of the Palestinian National Authority, passed away under strange circumstances in 2004 and the cause of his death has never been satisfactorily explained. The doctors who examined him in 2004 were perplexed. They looked for any toxins in his body that could explain the observed symptoms but found none. They also considered the possibility of radiological poisoning such as thallium, a radioactive element, but after measuring his...

Middle East needs WMD experts to push the cause of arms control

December 2, 2013

  By Nilsu Goren, Aviv Melamud, Ibrahim Said Ibrahim and Ariane Tabatabai – Middle East regional stability and security continues to face substantial challenges, among them the problem of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Israel’s opaque nuclear posture, doubts surrounding the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and other suspected weapons programs are all impediments to arms control efforts.   In an environment where terrorist organizations are active and statehood is fragile, physical...

The human face of chemical inspections in Syria

November 14, 2013

  By Egle Murauskaite and Michelle E. Dover – Tasked with the mission of destroying the Syrian government’s chemical weapons capability amidst civil conflict, the United Nations’ Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) faces an immense challenge. This is the first time international inspections and efforts to dismantle a country’s chemical weapons capability are taking place during an active conflict. To effectively protect its inspectors, the OPCW needs a management and support system for what is increasingly looking...

Anger management in the Middle East

August 9, 2013

  By Nilsu Goren, Aviv Melamud, Ibrahim Said Ibrahim, and Ariane Tabatabai – The Middle East has provided an arena for different weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. Such weapons – nuclear, chemical, biological – are either being developed, acquired, stored, or contemplated throughout this highly-volatile and conflict-prone region. Most notably, there is the nuclear issue (Israel’s opaque nuclear posture and the controversial Iranian nuclear program), but the abundance of chemical and biological weapon programs throughout is arguably just as...

The future of arms control in the Middle East

July 30, 2013

  By Bilal Y. Saab – Political space is opening up in the Arab world. While it is particularly difficult to speak with any degree of confidence on the ultimate trajectory of the Arab uprisings (with all their local variants), the process of democratization that is sweeping the region is likely to have a significant impact on how Arab societies and their soon-to-be representative governments make and conduct foreign and defense policy in the future. One key area of concern...