Partner Capacity Building

"Participants in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism are committed to the following Statement of Principles to develop partnership capacity to combat nuclear terrorism on a determined and systematic basis."

Defeating the threat of terrorists seeking to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction demands unprecedented cooperation at the expert level among partner nations, at all levels of government, and with the private sector. Partnership capacity building to combat WMD Terrorism refers to a results-oriented collaboration between two of more organizations from distinct nations with the goal of improving on a continuous basis their individual national as well as collective capabilities. Partnership capacity building aims to enable the efficient and effective transfer of best practices and capabilities - skills, expertise, procedures, laws, regulations, systems, equipment, and technology - to strengthen our global layered defense-in-depth against terrorist attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons.

Through specialized Partnership Capacity Building Teams located in its embassies, the Department of State provides tailored, task-specific technical and operational assistance directly to the various ministries of partner nation governments to support the implementation of our national strategic objectives for combating WMD terrorism. These specialized teams operate under the authority of Chiefs of Mission and consist of interagency representatives with relevant subject matter expertise. These teams also have the capability to reach-back to interagency, multinational, and private sector resources to meet the specific needs of partner nations, their constituent governments, and private sector partners.

These teams can provide tailored capacity building support to partner nations across a broad range of combating WMD terrorism areas, including:

• Physical protection and material control
• Detection architecture development
• Complex illicit network investigations and enforcement
• Emergency response and consequence management
• Attribution and technical forensics
• Information sharing and interagency collaboration
• Legal and regulatory architecture development

For more information regarding Partnership Capacity Building Teams and the kinds of technical assistance they can provide, please contact us at wmdterrorism@state.gov.