On 27-28 March 2012 the next Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) takes place in Seoul. Given developments in Asian security this meeting comes at a crucial time and addresses issues of broader international importance. The Summit process indicates that governance regimes are developing even in areas of hard security. Gathering top-level decision-makers from more than 50 countries in one place to discuss security issues is indicative of the far reaching changes that international relations are going through. Having this summit in Seoul shines a spotlight on the question of North Korea at a delicate juncture in that country. This policy brief suggests the steps the Seoul meeting should take to advance in collective security, globally but especially in Asia.
THE MULTILATERAL APPROACH
The NSS first took place in 2010. It was the result of a new approach by the United States to the threat of nuclear terrorism. While nuclear terrorism was a major concern since the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 attacks renewed focus in the United States on what is one of the greatest threats to homeland security.
Under the Bush administration the approach was mainly a unilateral one that targeted directly terrorist groups, their bases overseas and their sponsors. Such policies led to an international backlash against the United States that harmed its image overseas and strained alliances. Furthermore, such an unilateral approach contributed to a budget deficit that since the global financial crisis of 2008 has placed large constraints on available resources to the United States.
As a result of these difficulties and limitations, the Obama administration renewed its grand strategy for national security with a focus on multilateral engagement. In the nuclear arena, it conceived of the Nuclear Security Summit as a new approach to confront the threat of nuclear terrorism. Rather than targeting terrorists directly, this new strategy seeks to take on the tools used by terrorists, such as loose nuclear materials. As a multilateral arrangement, the Nuclear Security Summit seeks to overcome the difficulties caused by unilateral approaches.
President Barack Obama during his Prague speech in April 2009 to promote a ‘world without nuclear weapons,’ stressed the importance of nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The Nuclear Security Summit is therefore a US-led global regime that represents the Obama administrations’ efforts to launch a broad and comprehensive strategy to counter nuclear terrorism...(Continued)