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Removing Motive
Canada seeks to:
- Remove the motives to develop, acquire or illicitly retain (and possibly use) WMD, by increasing the political and economic costs of doing so.
- Reduce the perceived benefits of WMD.
- Address the conditions that proliferators exploit to justify acquiring and retaining WMD.
Multilateral treaties create a powerful international norm against developing WMD. They also help to deter, complicate, and raise the political costs of pursuing WMD. Examples of such treaties include:
- Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
- Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
- Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
Supporting effective verification, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), for example, also helps deter non-compliance, and build confidence in states' undertakings.
Verification efforts force states that pursue WMD into expensive denial and deception efforts. These raise the costs of their WMD programs, helping to limit them. Effective inspections can reveal illicit development, and promote greater openness and transparency. Sanctions against states or other groups that illegally pursue WMD also help raise political and economic costs of proliferation.
Finally, we can reduce perceived benefits of owning or threatening to use WMD against us, through the continuous review of effective defensive and emergency management capabilities – including civil defence. These efforts show our determination to face any threat of WMD.
Wider peace-building and conflict prevention policies, such as working to re-energize the Middle East Peace Process, or encouraging closer ties between India and Pakistan, also help our non-proliferation and disarmament aims.
