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Disarmament DiplomacyIssue No. 26, May 1998New DoD WMD AgencyOn 19 May, the US Defense Department announced the establishment of a new agency - the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) - to elaborate and coordinate counter-proliferation policy. The DTRA will be officially inaugurated on 1 October 1998, headed by nuclear physicist Dr. Jay C. Davis, currently Associate Director for Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. According to a DoD press release: "Countering WMD proliferation may represent the most important security challenge of the next decade. DTRA will be the Department's focal point for addressing this complex and comprehensive problem. The new agency is to be formed by consolidating the On-Site Inspection Agency, the Defense Special Weapons Agency, the Defense Technology Security Administration, and some program functions for the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs."Reports: Text - New Pentagon Agency to deal with proliferation threat, United States Information Service, 19 May. © 1998 The Acronym Institute. |