Recent and upcoming nonproliferation activities, events, and announcements involving the CNS center, staff, and programs.

Updated: Apr 29, 2011

HH Al-Sharif Nasser Bin Nasser - Promoting Cooperation on Science and Technology in the Middle East

On April 27, the CNS Washington, DC office hosted a discussion with HH Al-Sharif Nasser Bin Nasser, Managing Director of Jordan's Middle East Scientific Institute for Security (MESIS). The meeting, moderated by Dr. Chen Kane, Senior Research Associate, is part of the Center's focused involvement on efforts to promote the Track II dialogue in the Middle East and laying the foundations for a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the region.

MESIS was founded in 2002, when it was known as the Cooperative Monitoring Center, in a partnership with the US Department of Energy and Sandia National Laboratory. The center conducts training programs and workshops to promote the role of science and technology in addressing nonproliferation, arms control, and other security challenges in the Middle East. One of the main objectives of MESIS is to promote understanding of technical measures for monitoring a WMD-free zone in the Middle East. The center has hosted workshops on border security, regional biosecurity and biosafety, as well as approaches to national implementation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons agreements. For instance, MESIS recently held a technical workshop to strengthen CTBT implementation capabilities in the Middle East and a training workshop on seismological analysis.

The event was attended by staff from the CNS Washington DC office, as well as representatives from the Fissile Materials Working Group/Connect US Fund, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the British-American Security Information Council, CMC-Sandia, and George Washington University.

Nasser addressed the plans for establishing a civilian nuclear program in Jordan, stressing the leadership's interest in transparency and collective responsibility. To that effect, Nasser highlighted the concept of public-private partnerships. He also elaborated on the economic imperative for initiating a nuclear program, and how it is tied not only to its uranium reserves and securing long-term energy supply of energy, but also tosolving Jordan's water scarcity problems.

Participants raised questions about the negotiations on the so-called 123 agreement with the United States, the extent of participation of nongovernmental organizations in the debate over the nuclear program, and the challenges in replenishing the cadre of experts with a younger generation of dedicated professionals. In fact, Nasser indicated that one of the main purposes of MESIS is to identify the next generation of experts from the region to provide them with the necessary training that will help them make a tangible contribution to the promotion of arms control and nonproliferation in the region.

Noting that pandemics and other transnational challenges do not recognize boundaries or zones of conflict, Nasser highlighted the importance of fomenting a regional sense of partnership, strengthening linkages between experts across the region, and formalizing communication channels in the region. Further, he described the Jordanian nuclear enterprise not solely as a national project, but a regional one, offering benefits for the Levant and the Middle East in general.

He noted that part of the success of the Department of Energy's initiative with CMC and later MESIS lies in an approach that seeks to engage local stakeholders, with insight of the institutions and the particularities of local and regional dynamics. These stakeholders, in turn, may act as effective partners, communicating the interests of the sponsors locally as well as funneling important feedback from the local community.

Nasser, a graduate of Clark and Princeton universities, previously worked in the office of His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, where he last served as Senior Analyst in the Foreign Affairs Directorate. During that time, he managed several bilateral and thematic files and led analytical studies on Jordan's regional and international relations.