The Next 100 Project: Leveraging National Security Assistance to Meet Developing World Needs

The world is facing a new era of proliferation, sparked by the end of the Cold War and the transferring of sophisticated technologies from government to private hands. As this trade has grown, nonproliferation has often been secondary to the financial benefits of globalization.

In April 2004, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1540, of which the goal was to strengthen controls over sensitive weapons, materials, technologies, and know-how—particularly regarding proliferation to nonstate actors. Today, progress toward implementation is not entirely encouraging, as evidenced by incomplete reporting and the slow pace of national implementation plans to ensure full compliance with the resolution.

Enduring solutions to the longstanding governance needs in many regions of the world will require that recipient states experience the value of receiving assistance in connection with 1540. This report examines the record and points to opportunities for future improvement.

“The Next 100 Project,” is a collaborative effort between the Cooperative Nonproliferation Program at the Henry L. Stimson Center and the Stanley Center targeting sustainable implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. The focus of the project was to identify new sources of assistance for addressing endemic threats in the developing world, including poverty, corruption, infectious disease, and economic underdevelopment by tapping national security resources and addressing mutual concerns.