Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

NSC Interagency Working Groups. PDD/NSC-2 authorizes the Deputies to establish asystem of Interagency Working Groups (IWGs), some permanent and others ad hoc.While the PDD empowers the Deputies to determine the chairs of the IWGs, other forcesintervened in the case of the NSC IWG on Non-Proliferation and Export Controls, theprincipal interagency group for proliferation-related issues. As originally written, PDD/NSC-2 stated that “[i]n general, foreign policy and defense issues should be chaired at theAssistant Secretary level by the Departments of State and Defense, respectively...andintelligence, non-proliferation, arms control and crisis management by the NSC.”(Emphasis added.) Thus, for the first six years of the Clinton Administration, the IWG hasbeen chaired by the NSC Senior Director for Non-Proliferation and Export Controls.As a result of the State Department reorganization that Congress mandated in the ForeignAffairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, however, the State Department will shortlyassume the chair of the non-proliferation IWG. PDD/NSC-65 changed the basic PDD toprovide that “[i]n general, foreign policy and non-proliferation issues should be chaired atthe Assistant Secretary level by the Department of State.” (Emphasis added.) Presumably,the Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation, a position established under the UnderSecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, will replace the NSC SeniorDirector for Non-Proliferation and Export Controls as chair of the IWG, though the SeniorDirector will remain an important member.The change to the PDD regarding who chairs the Non-Proliferation and Arms Control IWGresulted from lengthy negotiations over the integration of the independent foreign affairsagencies—ACDA, the Agency for International Development (AID), and the U.S.Information Agency (USIA)—into the State Department. (See “Reorganization Plan andReport,” submitted by President Clinton to Congress on December 30, 1998, pursuant toSection 1601 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, as contained inP.L. 105-277.) In fact, possibly as a consequence of the uncertainty surroundingreorganization, the IWG has been meeting less frequently and more informally than in thepast. Nonetheless, the IWG maintains a structure of interagency sub-groups devoted tospecific issues, including plutonium disposition, chemical weapons, biological weapons,and export controls. Presumably, the new IWG chair will appoint sub-group chairs, asneither the reorganization plan nor the internal Administration negotiations appear to havespecified which agency will chair each sub-group.PDD/NSC-13, which is classified, established and directed implementation of U.S. policyon proliferation and export controls, and it assigned responsibility for implementation of thePresident’s policy agenda to the IWG on Non-Proliferation and Export Controls.A second NSC interagency group that deals with proliferation-related concerns is the IWGon Defense Policy and Arms Control. This IWG, chaired by the NSC Counselor for DefensePolicy and Arms Control (a new title for the Senior Director), assists the Deputies onmatters relating to the defense budget, programs, and policy, nuclear arms control, andconventional arms control. The IWG’s purview includes the Comprehensive Test Ban10