Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN)

Date: 01/20/2009 Description: Blue envelope icon, used for email subscriptions. State Dept Photo Sign up for International Security and Nonproliferation email updates.

 

Date: 04/10/2001 Location: Biblis, Germany Description: A train with spent nuclear fuel in a special container in the last car slowly passes the huge cooling towers as it leaves the nuclear power plant in Biblis, Germany, Tuesday, April 10, 2001, headed for the nuclear reprocessing plant in La Hague, western France.© AP ImageDate: 01/24/2007 Location: Manila, Philippines Description: Filipino participants in chemical suits spray water on their colleagues to decontaminate them during a field exercise on Radiological Dispersal Devices in suburban Taguig, south of Manila, Philippines. © AP ImageDate: 03/11/2008 Location: Pyongyang, North Korea Description: North Korean missile unit takes part in a massive military parade. © AP ImageDate: 01/10/2006 Location: Geesthacht, Germany Description: Engineers clean equipment around the spent fuel storage pool during a routine inspection at the nuclear power plant Kruemmel.© AP Image

"Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up." —President Barack Obama, April 5, 2009

The ISN Bureau:

  • spearheads efforts to promote international consensus on WMD proliferation through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy;
  • leads the development of diplomatic responses to specific bilateral and regional WMD proliferation challenges, including today's threats posed by Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Develops and supports strategic dialogues with India, Pakistan, China, and other key states or groups of states.
  • addresses WMD proliferation threats posed by non-state actors and terrorist groups by improving physical security, using interdiction and sanctions, and actively participating in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI);
  • works closely with the UN, the G-8, NATO, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international institutions and organizations to reduce and eliminate the threat posed by WMD
  • supports efforts of the international community to prevent, protect against, and respond to the threat or use of WMD by terrorists; leads coordination for the U.S. government's as co-chair to the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, a partnership of 77 countries (and growing) committed to preventing, protecting against, and responding to nuclear terrorism.

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