According to a new survey published by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, nearly two-thirds of residents in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey approve of the UN using

force to prevent the proliferation of

nuclear weapons.

It is surprising that large majorities of people in Muslim countries are seemingly willing to green-light military action that would most likely occur in their own backyards in order to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Just as surprisingly, 70% of Iranians felt positively about the UN becoming more powerful in world affairs, which would include the creation of a standing UN peacekeeping force with the power to go into countries to investigate human rights violations. Not exactly the reaction I might have expected from a country that has had heavy economic sanctions placed on it by the UN, and is not exactly known for its civil liberties.

The implications of these survey results for the United States and the global communities’ non-proliferation efforts are significant. While few would advocate the use of military force as a first option to stop the spread of WMD, the support for it amongst local populations seems to exist, should it come to that. Popular support for the use of force could serve as leverage in future negotiations with proliferating countries. Certainly Iran would have to think twice about its nuclear ambitions if it knew that not only Western countries, but Muslim countries as well, supported the use of force to keep Iran nuke-free.

These survey results are unlikely to have any real immediate effect, but can serve as an interesting backdrop to future discussion of negotiations with Iran. President-elect Obama has made it very clear over the course of his 2-year campaign that he would make engagement with Iran, and other potential proliferators, a hallmark of his presidency. (Soon to be) Secretary of State Clinton won’t be able to wave a poll at the Iranians and expect them to give up their nuclear plans, but having the tacit support of Muslim countries should allow her to negotiate more aggressively, knowing that the broad-based support for a last-ditch military strike is already in place.

This of course all assumes that the survey reflects the true sentiments in the region towards the UN, which is an assumption that I at least, choose to make. It should be noted though, that there is certainly a possibility that the respondents to the survey were for whatever reason inclined to give the answer they thought the pollsters wanted to hear, and not their actual opinions. If this is in fact the case, then please disregard the above post.

Either way, it is far past time for the United States to seriously address the threat of WMD terrorism. The WMD Commission has predicted that there will be a nuclear or biological weapons attack on the United States in the next five years. While it is certainly helpful to have broad international support for military intervention, we should not allow it to get that far, a very real risk, without a sincere effort at a peaceful solution. With a report of a potential “WMD Czar”, the Obama administration seems to be moving in the right direction, and Congress should follow suit by quickly embracing and implementing the recommendations made in both PSA’s Report Card and the WMD Commission’s report. We might disagree on a lot of things, but keeping America safe and secure shouldn’t be one of them.