They Figured Out How to Destroy Assad's Chemical Arsenal

In 2013, the Nobel Peace Prize went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its role in ultimately destroying 1,200 tons of Syrian chemical weapons. In a deep dive for Rolling Stone, Tessa Stuart gives much of the credit to four women: two civilians not long out of college and two military officers who had just returned from maternity leave whose idea to do away with those weapons on a boat parked in the Mediterranean is what eventually came to pass. They worked for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an obscure "cubical farm" in northern Virginia where brilliant minds constantly game out scenarios to avert mass destruction. Months before President Bashar Al-Assad crossed President Obama’s "red line" with a sarin attack on civilians in Ghouta, the four women volunteered to explore options for destroying Syria’s stockpile, should the opportunity might arise.

At first, their work was largely ignored, and they were sometimes belittled amid the "good old boy" culture. Things changed dramatically when Russia helped broker a deal: Assad would relinquish his chemicals; the world needed to move fast. There was already consensus around the idea of using a "self-contained machine that could render the component chemicals inert" to do the job. But where? Faced with limited options, the women conjured a plan to destroy the problem at sea on a specially outfitted ship. Selling the improbable idea up the chain of command proved nearly as hard as executing it, but they succeeded, with the stockpile the US had secured fully eliminated on Aug. 18, 2014. Their joy was short-lived. The next day, Assad unleashed a chlorine attack. (Read the fascinating full story here, which notes the women have gotten little credit for their work.)