U.S. Working in Concert with Tajikistan and Afghanistan to Secure Their Border
The Tajikistan-Afghanistan border has a long-turbulent history. From the 19th century Great Game to more recent conflicts, the border’s porous state continues to be a source of concern for both governments as well as the international community.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan are landlocked, and their shared 1,344 kilometer border is a hub for controlled and dual-use military and industrial materials, as well as a major drug smuggling route. Threats in the region include violent extremism, as well as narcotics and weapons trafficking.
Because this border is susceptible to trafficking in WMD, the United States has a stake in facilitating closer cross-border ties between Tajikistan and its Afghan counterparts. In 2018, the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation announced a change in foreign assistance programming to focus on areas that present the most critical threats and challenges to U.S. national security. As a result of that decision, earlier this year, ISN’s Export Control and Border Security (EXBS) program initiated talks with border security and customs agencies in Tajikistan and Afghanistan to develop a program and process for training officials in both nations that would help them better secure the border and work as partners.
The EXBS program works to enhance U.S. national security by building partner country capacity to comply with international strategic trade control norms to prevent the proliferation of WMD and illicit trade in conventional weapons. Specifically, EXBS helps partner countries build strategic trade controls that are consistent with international best practices, working to strengthen legal and regulatory structures, licensing procedures, and enforcement capabilities.
The EXBS-Tajikistan-Afghanistan partnership kicked off with the establishment of a new facility in Dushanbe called the Regional Training Center on WMD Nonproliferation and Export Control. This training center now works to train Tajik and other Central Asian regional officers in a wide variety of techniques including nuclear and radiological smuggling detection, interdiction, containment, and response. An added benefit: Afghan and Tajik customs and border officials are also receiving assistance with compliance on strategic trade controls, as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1540, a binding resolution that requires all countries to establish laws prohibiting the transfer of WMD.
French and U.S. Communities Work Together to Counter Terrorist Radicalization and Recruitment
France and the United States know the threat and impact of terrorism all too well. Despite our global efforts to defeat and degrade terrorist organizations, groups like ISIS and al-Qa’ida will continue to attempt to carry out attacks and inspire others to violence.
To bolster the United States’ partnership with France to counter terrorist radicalization and recruitment, the State Department has encouraged policy makers, researchers, and practitioners from both countries to exchange good practices and lessons learned. Included in these efforts are traditional speaker programs and the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), and also new innovative initiatives such as the Strong Cities Network, and the City Pair CVE Partnership Program, which is a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Beginning in 2015, our key engagements have led U.S. and French participants to develop new programs or update existing ones to counter the terrorist threat:
- The State Department helped establish the Strong Cities Network, which includes Bordeaux, Montreuil, Paris, and Sarcelles. Through this global network of local governments, French members have been able to share best practices with other members around the world. Bordeaux, for example, has presented on its Center for Prevention of Radicalization (CAPRI) at Strong Cities Network events in Australia, Lebanon, and Turkey.
- The U.S. Embassy Paris facilitated the first visit of homeland security expert Dr. Erroll Southers of the University of Southern California (USC) to France several years ago to share his knowledge on terrorist radicalization and recruitment and soft targets protection. Subsequent visits to France by Southers led to USC’s Price School of Public Policy signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas for their Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Studies degree program. In November 2017, USC’s Price School and its Safe Communities Institute hosted a Global Summit on Homegrown Violent Extremism featuring French experts that Southers met through previous engagements.
- Marseille participated in a City Pair with Orlando and Tampa in December 2016, six months after the Orlando Pulse nightclub attack in which an ISIS-inspired terrorist killed 49 people. The Marseille delegation met Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, the Orlando Police Department, and community leaders to hear firsthand accounts of their response to that incident. Marseille had its own encounter with terrorism in October 2017 when an ISIS-inspired man murdered two women at the central train station.
- Toulouse participated in a City Pair with Atlanta in November 2017. One of their stops included Clarkston, Georgia, which serves as a model on how to build the resilience of new communities. The exchange provided Toulouse delegates with new approaches on how local governments can work with civil society organizations on countering terrorist radicalization and recruitment.
- During a City Pair in December 2017, a delegation from Lyon learned about New Orleans’ efforts to promote resilience in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, after-school programs, and the protection of soft targets in the French District. Based on the exchanges, delegates are developing programs to engage vulnerable youth in Lyon.
- Strasbourg visited Boston in May 2018 through the City Pair and learned about local government and community responses to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, including the One World Strong organization formed by survivors, as well as programs to address gang violence and youth delinquency. One World Strong has subsequently worked with survivors of terrorist attacks in Nice and Paris. Based on their exchange, Strasbourg delegates are organizing an international conference this fall to discuss ways to promote community resilience and counter terrorist radicalization and recruitment.
- Local government and community leaders from Paris visited Chicago and Los Angeles through the City Pair in March 2019. In Chicago, the delegation learned about the Illinois Targeted Violence Prevention Program, which educates communities on how to identify and address the warning signs of radicalization. In Los Angeles, the delegation met with Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) program staff as well as Homeboy Industries, which helps former prisoners reintegrate.
- The U.S. Embassy Paris in April 2019 partnered with the European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS) to organize a workshop for City Pair alumni and other State Department exchanges from Belgium, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Participants shared lessons learned from their exchanges, including how Vilvoorde, a Belgian municipality just north of Brussels, reduced foreign terrorist fighter departures by developing programs to engage vulnerable youth. A member of Manchester’s City Council talked about how they took lessons from their exchange with Boston into account for the planning of the one-year remembrance of the June 2017 terrorist attack by an ISIS affiliate that killed 22 people.
The attacks in Marseille, New York, Nice, Orlando, Paris, San Bernardino, and Strasbourg over the past four years are examples of how lethal even one or a few determined individuals can be. Exchanges between France and the United States on countering radicalization and terrorist recruitment remain timely and important – for all of our national security.
Reining in Iran’s Scientists
In March, the U.S. Departments of State and Treasury announced new sanctions on Iran, in what amounts to a cautionary message to scientists in Iran who may consider working for the regime. In the announcement, the United States warned that any scientists lending a hand to the regime’s proliferation activities could find themselves on the losing end of a gamble they are making with their professional careers.
Specifically, the sanctions designated 31 individuals and entities under Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, WMD delivery systems, and their supporters. The 14 individuals and 17 entities designated are all linked to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research – also known by its Farsi acronym, SPND.
SPND, founded in 2011, has employed up to 1,500 individuals, many of whom continue to carry out dual-use research and development activities. These activities can be useful for developing weapons delivery systems. Further, SPND’s subordinate organizations spend millions of dollars each year on a broad spectrum of defense projects. SPND scientists perform proliferation- sensitive research and experiments, and SPND continues to use subsidiary organizations, front companies, and procurement agents to acquire dual-use items from third-country suppliers. Ominously, moreover, SPND’s is run by the former head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Sanctioned individuals and entities, in addition to having any U.S. assets blocked, will be denied access to the U.S. financial system. Further, non-Americans who provide support to these individuals could also be subject to sanctions.
These designations are part of our ongoing campaign of unprecedented economic pressure to change the Iranian regime’s behavior.
Individuals working for Iran’s proliferation-related programs – including scientists, procurement agents, and technical experts – should be aware of the risks to which they expose themselves.
They may be subject to sanctions that would prevent them from doing things such as sending money to relatives in the United States. What’s more, their names will be linked to Iran’s WMD program, making them international pariahs. Iran’s next generation of scientists has two paths: they can use their skills pursuing noble work outside of the WMD realm, or they can work for Iranian proliferation organizations and risk being sanctioned.
While these sanctions continue the U.S. efforts to exert maximum pressure on the Iranian regime, the United States will continue to work in partnership with allied countries to prevent the global proliferation of WMD. We know from the recently revealed Iranian nuclear archive that the regime cannot be trusted with nuclear capabilities. And as long as Iran continues its proliferation activities, the United States will continue to address Iran’s proliferation and other malign behavior that threatens international peace and security.
DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.
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