Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:37:51.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Biological, Toxin, and Chemical Warfare be Eliminated?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Meryl Nass
Meryl Nass*
Affiliation:
Wing Memorial Hospital and University of Massachusetts, USA
Get access

Extract

Is it possible to prevent biological, chemical, and toxin warfare from occurring? The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), an international treaty banning the possession and hostile use of biological and toxin weapons, already exists; and a similar chemical weapons treaty is currently being negotiated. The older Geneva Protocol of 1925 bans the “first use” of these weapons in war. It might seem that the threat of use of these weapons of mass destruction is nearly at an end.

Type
Roundtable Commentaries
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 30 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Federation of American Scientists (1991). “Implementation of the Proposals for a Verification Protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention: Report of the Federation of American Scientists Working Group on Biological and Toxin Weapons Verification.” Washington, DC: Federation of American Scientists.Google Scholar
Geissler, E., ed. (1991). Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention by Confidence Building Measures. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lehman, R.(1991). “Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Third Review Conference, statement by Ambassador Ronald F. Lehman, II, Head of United States Delegation.” United States Mission to International Organizations. September 10, 1991. Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Meselson, M., Kaplan, M., and Mokulsky, M.(1990). “Verification of Biological and Toxin Weapons Disarmament.” In Calogero, F., Goldberger, M., and Kapitza, S., eds. Verification, Monitoring Disarmament. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Nass, M.(1991). “The Labyrinth of Biological Defense.” Physicians for Social Responsibility Quarterly I:24.Google Scholar
Piller, C.and Yamamoto, K.(1988). Gene Wars. New York: Beech Tree Books.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, B.(1991). “The Next Step: A Biological Verification Regime.” Disarmament XIV: 119.Google Scholar
U.S. Senate (1989). “Global Spread of Chemical and Biological Weapons.” Hearing Before the Committee on Governmental Affairs and the Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations, 101st Congress, First Session.Google Scholar
Wheelis, M.(1992). “Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention through Global Epidemiological Serveillance.” Politics and the Life Sciences, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, S.(1987). “Strategies of Biowarfare Defense.” Military Medicine 152: 25–28.Google Scholar
Willems, J.(1991). “Difficulties in Verifying the Use of Chemical Weapons and its Implications: Some Brief Case Studies.” Physicians for Social Responsibility Quarterly, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Wright, S., ed. (1990). Preventing a Biological Arms Race. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Zilinskas, R.(1986). “Verification of the Biological Weapons Convention.” In Geissler, E., ed. Biological and Toxin Weapons Today. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zilinskas, R.(1992). “Confronting Biological Threats to International Security: A Biological Hazards Early Warning Program.” Annuals of the New York Academy of Science, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar