Sonia Ben Ouagrham Gormley

In partnership with the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA)

Dr. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley is an Assistant Professor in the Biodefense Program at George Mason University (GMU).

Before joining GMU, she served for 10 years as a Senior Research Associate at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Export Control Observer, a monthly newsletter devoted to the analysis of global WMD export control issues. Dr. Ben Ouagrham was also an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, where she taught a course on WMD in the former Soviet Union (FSU).

She received her Ph.D. in Economics of Development at the Advanced School of Social Sciences in Paris.  

Currently, Dr. Ben Ouagrham is conducting studies dealing with the nexus between WMD-related trafficking, organized crime and terrorism in the FSU, as well as proliferation financing and the role of tacit knowledge in the transfer of BW knowledge.

Her recent publications include:

• "The Anti-Plague System in the Newly Independent States, 1992 onward" ;
• "Nuclear Terrorism's Fatal Assumptions", The Bulletin Online, October 23, 2007;
• "An Unrealized Nexus? WMD-related Trafficking, Terrorism, and Organized Crime in the Former Soviet Union," Arms Control Today, July/August 2007;
• "Plagued with Errors: New Approaches Needed to Tackle Proliferation Threats From the Anti-Plague System," Arms Control Today, March 2006;
• "Growth of the Anti-Plague System during the Soviet Period," Critical Reviews in Microbiology, February 2006;
• "What Non-proliferation Policy for the Soviet Anti-Plague System?" and Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, Alexander Melikishvili and Raymond Zilinskas, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, February 2006.

Lectures

Nexus between WMD-related Trafficking, Terrorism, and Organized Crime in the Former Soviet Union

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 powerfully advanced the notion that terrorist groups might acquire and use WMD, or more plausibly, radiological dispersal devices (RDD).

The uncovering of the nuclear trafficking network operated by the Pakistani A.Q. Khan in 2004 fueled new concerns that trafficking with WMD material may give rise to a parallel black market of nuclear material linked to organized crime.

Pointing out that terrorist organizations and organized crime had already cooperated in the drug trafficking business, a number of analysts voiced urgent warnings about the possibility that organized crime might decide to channel WMD material to terrorist groups. Much of the concern about a possible nexus between WMD-trafficking, focused on the FSU because of the large number of insufficiently secured nuclear, chemical and biological facilities located in close proximity to trafficking routes for drugs and small arms.

However, a study conducted by the speaker on 2001-2008 WMD-related trafficking cases indicates that there is no compelling evidence of an empirically solid nexus between WMD-related trafficking, terrorism and organized crime in the FSU.

That said, the post-2001 evidence of trafficking in WMD-related material does show new and potentially worrisome characteristics that bear close scrutiny.

Biological Weapons (BW) Proliferation Threat from the Soviet Union

This presentation will address the issue of BW proliferation and the risks of bioterrorism through the analysis of a group of former BW research institutes in the FSU called the Anti-Plague System.

The former-Soviet BW program was the longest and the biggest program in the world, consisting of dozens of facilities spread across the former Soviet Union. Many of these organizations house large collections of dangerous pathogens that are insufficiently secured and have among their staff skilled personnel who receive little or no salary.

The resulting proliferation threat is even greater in Central Asia and the Caucasus, which are criss-crossed by trafficking routes and plagued by terrorist activity. The presentation will end with a review of U.S. and other countries’ policies in preventing the BW proliferation threat from the FSU to determine whether they actually help prevent the threat and particularly limit access to terrorists.

Links

http://cns.miis.edu/research/antiplague/index.htm;
http://www.unidir.org/pdf/articles/pdf-art2692.pdf
http://npsglobal.org/eng/index.php/component/content/article/147-articles/330-the-soviet-anti-plague-system-an-introduction-sonia-ben-ouagrham-gormley-alexander-melikishvili-raymond-zilinskas.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7462/is_200710/ai_n32245266/ 
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Ouagrham-Gormley_Sonia_98545717.aspx

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