In January, CNAS published its December 2018 report which says that whilst the international community has long prioritised reducing the risk of WMD proliferation, whether from state actors such as North Korea and Iran, or from non-state actors, particularly criminals and transnational terrorist networks, there remains a significant blind spot: the efforts to prevent the financing of WMD proliferation are only in their infancy. The legal framework to prevent the financing of proliferation is weak, and implementation across the world is spotty. These weaknesses derive from one overwhelming fact: that the international community has not prioritised financial controls to fight proliferation. Very few countries have demonstrated the political will to put further emphasis on this threat to international peace and security. It says that illicit actors, including those acting on behalf of countries such as Iran and North Korea, have exploited, are exploiting, and will continue to exploit these vulnerabilities. The report says that the US has unique power and responsibility to combine domestic legislative and regulatory reforms with international leadership in order to strengthen the countering proliferation finance regime, and that doing so will require overcoming significant political will obstacles. It argues that effective AML controls are not sufficient to combat proliferation finance. The report makes various policy recommendations.
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