21. Switzerland and Cooperative Threat Reduction
- Author:
- Derek Lutterbeck
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
- Abstract:
- An increasingly prominent item or concept on the international security and arms control agenda of the post-Cold War world is the one of 'Cooperative Threat Reduction' or CTR. CTR programmes have their origins in the immediate aftermath of the cold war, when the so-called Nunn-Lugar threat reduction programme was launched to safeguard weapons of mass destruction on the territory of the collapsing Soviet Union. Recently, however, such threat reduction efforts have gained much in salience with the emergence of international terrorism as a prime security concern among 'western' countries, subsequent to the terrorists attacks on the US on 11 September 2001. One core objective in the fight against terror, at least from the perspective of western countries, is to prevent terrorist and similar organisations from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
- Topic:
- Arms Control and Proliferation and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United Nations