Emergence of Non-State Terrorist Actors: International Obligations and the Challenge of Supervision over Weapons of Mass Destruction

In recent decades, the concept and nature of international security has been evolved through the emergence of terrorist non-State actors and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) so that access to WMD by such non-State actors has become a serious threat for the international community. The lack of provisions in international documents on the prevention of WMD to deal with such threat has made the international community to take special steps in preventing access to WMD by terrorist non-State actors. Notwithstanding these international efforts has not resulted in complete removal of supervisory challenges regarding such non-State actors. In this framework, this paper, using descriptive and analytical method, examines supervisory challenges in prevention of terrorist non-State access to WMD and concludes that the removal of these challenges requires globalization of international obligations, universal and complete co-ordination and co-operation among States, international organs and organisations and the managers of the respective industries in standardization of securing the WMD related materials and supervision over their establishment. As an essential strategy, adoption of a special and comprehensive international convention on the prevention of terrorist non-State actors to access WMD has been suggested in this paper.