Assessing the impact of international efforts to improve the protection of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials
Governments have spent billions of dollars on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threat reduction work, aimed at combating a broad range of safety, security and proliferation risks.
In a RUSI Whitehall Paper CSSS staff assess the impact of the Global Partnership Against WMD Threats, a $20 Billion programme initiated at the G8 Summit in Kananaskis in 2002, focused on Russia. Despite its many significant achievements this initiative could arguably have done more to tackle the full range of CBRN risks.
Staff have also sought to explore the achievements and consider the future role that could be played by Nuclear Security Centre of Excellence (CoEs). These are political driven initiatives, announced by states during the Nuclear Security Summit process, focused on enhancing nuclear security education, training and practice.
Over the past decade there has been considerable investment by international organisations and national governments aimed at stimulating a growth of academic nuclear security programmes. Once established these will help to imbue a culture of security at the formative stages of a nuclear professional career, informing their future practice. CSSS have carried out original empirical research into the impact of ‘train-the-educator’ programmes launched as part of these efforts. The findings are published in Professor Matthew Moran and Professor Chistopher Hobbs' article, ‘From Communities of Interest to Communities Of Practice: The Role and Impact of Professional Development in Nuclear Security Education’, in the British Journal of Educational Studies, show a clear shift within academia from a disparate, patchwork community of interest to a more structured global community of practice.