Japanese Coast Guards detain members of the crew of a U.S. military supply ship after boarding the ship by helicopter during "Exercise Pacific Protector"--one-day maneuvers aimed at demonstrating their ability to board ships suspected of smuggling WMD.
AP Photo

"Throwing Out the Bathwater, but Keeping the Baby"

Op-Ed, The Huffington Post

November 20, 2008

Author: Emma Belcher, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Managing the Atom; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"Resisting the temptation to renounce all things Bush, President-elect Barack Obama has astutely thrown himself behind the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a Bush administration effort to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). However, he should be wary in what manner he proposes to institutionalize it, lest it lose the very attributes that make it successful.

Despite squandering widespread global sympathy and much-needed support for U.S. foreign policy since 9/11, the Bush administration quietly leveraged impressive international participation in the initiative. Participation has grown from 11 to 91 states in just five years, to include more than the usual suspects. Although it has yet to realize its full potential, the PSI has been a foreign policy coup at a time when international support was hard to come by...."

The full text of this publication is available here.

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Full text of this publication is available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-belcher/throwing-out-the-bathwate_b_145298.ht
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