| Summary/Abstract |
The 2013–14 disarmament of Syria's chemical-weapons capabilities was a rare bright spot in a brutal civil war with no end in sight. The remarkable US-led, international effort to bring Damascus into the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, inventory its capabilities, and then verifiably destroy them is a fascinating and, to date, largely untold story. A substantial US government interagency effort centered in the Defense Department laid the diplomatic, technical, and procedural foundations for Syria's disarmament in the year prior to the August 2013 chemical-weapons attack in Ghouta that galvanized Syria's subsequent disarmament. An intrinsically interesting case, Syria's chemical-weapons disarmament has important implications for possible future WMD elimination operations elsewhere.
|