The Middle East is a hot spot of proliferation. It contains one state assumed to possess nuclear weapons, several states that tried and failed to develop a military nuclear capability, one state under suspicion of trying to do so, and it is the world region that witnessed the most frequent and severe employment of chemical weapons since the end of World War I. Notwithstanding, not a single arms control regime concerning weapons of mass destruction (WMD) covers the region as a whole. Instead we have seen several proliferation-related military operations which have rather contributed to destabilization than served non-proliferation. This volume, written under the auspices of the EU Consortium for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament determines the current state of diplomatic efforts to establish a WMD free zone in the Middle East. In doing so, it provides insights into central actors’ conflicting political positions, thereby explaining the stalemate of efforts to negotiate a WMD-free zone. Chapters written by renowned experts from academia and policy-oriented think tanks, as well as by next-generation Middle East and arms control experts, introduce the subject to the reader, give background information about arms control initiatives, provide technical expertise, and endeavour to make proposals for arms control measures in support of the creation of a Middle East WMD-free zone.

This book focuses on the Middle East arms control process as it unfolded during the years 1992-1995, as part of the multilateral track of the Arab-Israeli peace process initiated in Madrid, October 1991.

Contains primary source material.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This edited volume provides a systematic analysis of the missile threat and proliferation issue in the Middle East region. The question of how to increase the level of security in the Middle East is not a new one, given the conflict-ridden nature of the region. The solution attempted for this predicament has typically revolved around intense arms build-ups, a strategy which can prove self-defeating due to the subsequent countermeasures employed by neighbouring states. Arms Control and Missile Proliferation in the Middle East focuses on the strategic proliferation of arms, with a specific emphasis on missiles. This unique emphasis enables the contributors to provide a dynamic new perspective on conceptual and political disarmament efforts, thereby distinguishing this volume from many other related works on the region, which deal mainly with weapons of mass destruction. The book also explores the possibility of a reduction in weapon arsenals, examining a more promising cooperative security concept which includes confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs). This book will be of much interest to students of arms control, Middle Eastern politics, Gulf Security, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR.

The topic of biological weapons and the issues of arms control and disarmament are addressed in Middle East regional perspective. This requires that the subject be dealt with not as a separate category but within the overall context of the Middle East military balance. This taken into consideration, the different approaches to unconventional and mixed arms control are addressed in terms of how they affect the national interests of regional states, and in what form they are most likely to appear as increasing rather than diminishing their security. The US-USSR nuclear arms control effort during the Cold War is advocated as a process model for the Middle East. It provides a way to disarm the most heavily-armed regional powers of their most dangerous weapons without damaging their respective national interests. The voluntarism inherent in this approach respects the sovereignty of the region's several states, thereby overcoming both the Israeli distrust of international organizations and treaties and the Arab distrust of the partiality of the American superpower. The further recommendation to marry the US-USSR arms control negotiation model to the Middle East theater and its long history of negotiated military agreements, beginning with the Arab-Israeli armistice agreements in 1948-49, contains the additional benefit of separating the military requirements of arms control from the political shackles of a declining Middle East peace process. Israel's objection is that the Arms Control and Regional Security Committee, part of the multilateral track of the peace process, does not include states like Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya - the states by which Israel says it is most threatened. The remodeling of Middle East arms control according to Cold War standards enables the inclusion of those proliferating states which are not prepared to enter into political and economic normalization or security cooperation with Israel, but whose arms races with Israel and with one another are creating an ever more dangerous regional environment.

This volume incorporates the talks delivered at a conference on 11 Arms Control and the New Middle East Security Environment, 11 held in Ginosar (Israel) in January 1992. The conference was organized within the framework of the Project on Security and Arms Control in the Middle East conducted by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. Some 28 scholars from eight different countries, together with some 30 Israelis, took part in the conference deliberations.

Nine experts examine the East-West arms control experience to identify lessons that could be applied to the Middle East. The authors pinpoint specific near-term actions, particularly confidence-and-security-building measures, that might be explored now, whether or not they are linked to formal peace negotiations.Each chapter pairs a co-author who has detailed knowledge of a particular East-West arms control approach with a co-author who has extensive experience in the Middle East Region.Written in clear, jargon-free prose, this book will be especially useful to Middle East specialists and students of arms control as well as readers with a general interest in Middle East Affairs.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Middle East has been the focus of various projects for the establishment of arms control (including CBMs) regimes. Whereas some of these projects were initiated at the global level, others were discussed and debated at the regional level. This book analyses the global and regional dynamics of arms control in the Middle East in the post-Cold War era. It examines American and European arms control projects, the contexts in which they were presented, the reactions of major regional actors, and their impacts on arms control efforts in the region. It assesses Arab perceptions of the motivations for and constraints on establishing arms control regimes. It also explores the prospects of regional arms control in the context of the ongoing Arab Spring with its ramifications for Arab regional politics, and provides a new perspective on arms control in the Middle East. This volume enriches the ongoing discourse, which to date has been dominated by mainly Western perspectives.