Book contents
- On Nuclear Weapons: Essays by Richard Falk on Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament
- On Nuclear Weapons: Essays by Richard Falk on Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword by Zia Mian
- Preface by Richard Falk
- Acknowledgments
- Part I International Law and World Order
- Contents
- 1 The Shimoda Case
- 2 Nuclear Policy and World Order
- 3 Toward a Legal Regime for Nuclear Weapons
- 4 Nuclear Weapons, International Law, and the World Court
- 5 The Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion and the New Jurisprudence of Global Civil Society
- 6 Inhibiting Reliance on Biological Weaponry
- Part II Impacts of Democracy, Neutrality, and National Interest
- Part III Nuclear Policy Initiatives
- Part IV Remembering the Past, Encountering the Future
- Index
6 - Inhibiting Reliance on Biological Weaponry
The Role and Relevance of International Law
from Part I - International Law and World Order
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2019
- On Nuclear Weapons: Essays by Richard Falk on Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament
- On Nuclear Weapons: Essays by Richard Falk on Denuclearization, Demilitarization, and Disarmament
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword by Zia Mian
- Preface by Richard Falk
- Acknowledgments
- Part I International Law and World Order
- Contents
- 1 The Shimoda Case
- 2 Nuclear Policy and World Order
- 3 Toward a Legal Regime for Nuclear Weapons
- 4 Nuclear Weapons, International Law, and the World Court
- 5 The Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion and the New Jurisprudence of Global Civil Society
- 6 Inhibiting Reliance on Biological Weaponry
- Part II Impacts of Democracy, Neutrality, and National Interest
- Part III Nuclear Policy Initiatives
- Part IV Remembering the Past, Encountering the Future
- Index
Summary
Strengthening international law restraints on recourse to biological warfare is certainly useful, but an exclusive focus on the importance of international law can be misleading. Unfortunately, experience in wartime suggests that nations determine their weapons options primarily from considerations of military advantage. The government, as the nexus for military policy-making, is a power system with relatively little independent disposition to constrain battlefield behavior out of respect for moral and legal norms, however firmly established by treaty and custom. This attitude, often associated with a realpolitik orientation, is especially pronounced in foreign affairs during periods of armed conflict. In a nuclear age of intense conflict among strategic rivals, war planning is a permanent feature of governmental operations, making the search for potential military advantage a perpetual one, and the fear of military vulnerability a constant preoccupation. Perception and misperception of the other side’s activities tends to be crucial; it has become a matter of self-interest not to accuse prematurely or to react in a paranoid fashion to ambiguous information concerning possible violations of arms control agreements. This type of discipline and self-restraint is particularly important in regard to the subject of biological weaponry. In such an atmosphere, statespeople tend to invoke ultimate concerns about “sovereignty” and “survival” whenever they feel the need to justify official behavior.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and DisarmamentSelected Writings of Richard Falk, pp. 121 - 136Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019