How to prepare for a devastating threat

His Majesty King Abdullah, who attended the just-ended Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, called for joint international efforts to preempt a nuclear disaster and urged instilling a culture of nuclear security across the board.

The prerequisite for nuclear security, said the King, is an anti-nuclear armament culture, and nuclear security needs a two-layer shield of tough security precautions and transparency, which helps have an alert and confident public.

Instability, turmoil and the many conflicts in the Middle East could easily create an environment conducive not only to the theft of nuclear and radioactive material, but also to the proliferation of chemical, biological, radioactive and other weapons of mass destruction.

Or, as US President Barack Obama said, extremist “madmen” belonging to Daesh may not hesitate to launch a catastrophic nuclear attack.

Obama hosted the fourth leaders’ summit aimed at reducing the risk of a nuclear holocaust, a meeting that brought together over 50 countries and more than 5,000 delegates, regional and international organisations, which attests to the seriousness of the issue under discussion.

Obama stressed the fear of jihadists’ getting hold of nuclear weapons or material for a “dirty bomb”, relatively easy to assemble as it depends on low technology and the use of conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material.

The summit also addressed the fact that much of the world’s plutonium and enriched uranium is vulnerable to theft by extremist groups.

Jordan, the King told the audience, offers the first line of defence in the region against such thefts or attempts to acquire these materials, and is doing all it can, in cooperation with as many as 39 states and  non-state actors, to prevent the commission of such acts and more.

The approach, urged the King, should be proactive: “We simply cannot wait for such a catastrophe to happen before we act. We must be ahead and stay ahead of the threat.”

Jordan has made nuclear security and cooperation a priority, said the Monarch, and it will soon ratify the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

The challenges faced by the international community in this field are big.

Mankind released a power that might prove to be too big for it to contain.

Ideally, the big powers should have scaled down their nuclear arsenal, but the relatively poor ties between the US and Russia made that impossible.

Russian President Vladimir Putin boycotted the summit, so for the time being cooperation will be short circuited, but even Moscow must be aware of the danger some extremists bent on wreaking havoc on humanity can pose.

As King Abdullah pointed out, partners need to contribute to the effort of enhancing cooperation in the field through sharing information, technology and training.

The threat of a nuclear holocaust hovers over the entire globe. Nobody can believe his country is immune.

And as such, all should make an effort to make sure the threat remains hypothetical and can never become real.