Politics of Weapons Inspections

Nathan E. Busch is Professor and Co-Director of the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University. Joseph F. Pilat is Program Manager in the National Security and International Studies Office of Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

• Introduction1. What Are Monitoring and Verification Regimes?2. South Africa3. Iraq4. Libya5. Verifying Global Disarmament6. Applying Lessons for the "Difficult Cases": North Korea, Iran, SyriaConclusion: Strengthening Monitoring and Verification Regimes

"Establishing effective monitoring and verifying regimens are critical tools in the international community's nonproliferation efforts but do not always provide assurance of compliance. Although international inspections provide capabilities, access, and legitimacy, the international community appears to be in danger of misinterpreting what these regimens can and cannot accomplish. This timely, much-needed book examines previous examples of the successes, failures, and lessons that can be learned from the cases and help strengthen these regimens and apply them to current WMD programs in Syria, Iran, and North Korea. ...Recommended"—K. M. Zaarour, Choice "Nathan Busch and Joseph Pilat have authored a very timely work given the controversies surrounding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the often compromised international attempts to control their spread through inspections and disarmament agreements....this is a valuable work for its categorization of the various types of inspection regimes, as well as for its practical suggestions. It is relevant for the policymaking community as well as those academics with a particular interest in the issues of proliferation and inspection regimes."—Zachary Selden, H-Diplo