Article Title
Guarding Pandora's Box: Strengthening Physical Protection at Facilities that House Weapons of Mass Destruction and Related Materials
Abstract
This Note analyzes the requirements of Resolution 1540 and then assesses their implementation four years after the Security Council adopted them, focusing on the critical provisions dealing with the physical protection of WMD and related materials. Part I examines the international security problem that forms the backdrop of Resolution 1540 with a discussion of the considerable threat posed by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons respectively in the hands of terrorists. Part I also surveys the constellation of conventions, resolutions and initiatives (the so-called “web of prevention”) [FN16] that endeavors to address the physical protection aspect of WMD proliferation with a view to revealing the size of the gap that 1540 ostensibly plugs. Part II dissects the provisions of that resolution dealing with the physical protection of WMD and the operations of the committee charged with the task of implementing them. Finally, Part III *1046 offers some measures for improving the efficacy of Resolution 1540 and, in the alternative, recommends a future multilateral treaty with more specific, detailed physical protection standards for WMD and related materials.