How the World’s Most Underdeveloped Nations Get the World’s Most Dangerous Weapons

In 1954, Iraq’s industrial economy consisted mainly of “factories” employing one or two workers. With only fifty-five Iraqi engineering students graduating that year, there was no reason to believe that that situation would change anytime soon. But in twenty years the Iraqis were laying the foundation for a massive chemical-weapons industry, setting up a nuclear program that would eventually grow into a $10 billion effort, and welding together a long-range missile program with dreams of launching satellites into orbit. Nor was Iraq the only underdeveloped country acquiring such advanced— and secret—technologies. How could this happen? I became interested in that question as a United Nations weapons inspector shortly before the current war. During a routine search of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) database, I came across a copy of the contract Iraq signed to purchase the factories it needed to build long-range solid-propellant missiles. At the time, I was preoccupied with questions we needed to answer to verify Iraq’s disarmament and avert war: Did Iraq’s unmanned airplanes violate the UN Security Council’s resolutions? What had happened to the nearly 1,000 tons of mustard gas they had produced but failed to account for? The contract, spelling out what the party of the first part would supply to the party of the second part, was striking in its normality. This was the