Efforts to Strengthen Export Controls and Combat Illicit Trafficking and Brain Drain

The possible illicit transfer of weapons-of-massdestruction (WMD) components and know-how across NIS borders is one of the most pressing proliferation threats coming from the territory of the former Soviet Union. In the circumstances created by collapsing economies, weak government institutions, and still nascent export control systems, the considerable technological and human resources located in the NIS are vulnerable to diversion to states or sub-national actors of proliferation concern. Cases involving the illicit export of WMD technologies and/or the leakage of WMD-related know-how from the NIS persist, despite ongoing cooperative efforts to combat them.