Biological Weapons Convention


Report Warns of Failure to Control Biological Weapons -- Jeremy Lovell  -- Washington Post  -- October 26, 2004
Chemical / Biological Warfare

Biological weapons that can wipe out entire populations pose one of the biggest threats to the world today, yet remain almost completely uncontrolled according to the British Medical Association.


Proposed U.S. Biological Research Could Challenge Treaty Restrictions, Experts Charge -- David Ruppe  -- Global Security Newswire  -- June 30, 2004
Chemical / Biological Warfare

Offering a controversial justification, the Bush administration
is planning to perform certain biological defense activities that some arms
control experts say could violate the Biological Weapons Convention and
potentially render its restrictions meaningless.


With biodefense plan, fear of repercussions -- Scott Shane  -- Baltimore Sun  -- April 29, 2004
Chemical / Biological Warfare

Arms control advocates contend that research planned for a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory at Fort Detrick would violate the international ban on biological weapons and could touch off a global biological arms race.


U.S. Biodefense Plans Worry Nonproliferation Advocates -- Jonathan Yang  -- Arms Control Today  -- September 1, 2003
Chemical / Biological Warfare

The U.S. government?s efforts to combat bioterrorism are sparking concerns over the dangers enhanced biodefense programs might pose to the nonproliferation regime.


US Army Patents Biological Weapons Delivery System, Violates Bioweapons Convention -- Staff  -- Sunshine Project  -- May 8, 2003
Chemical / Biological Warfare

The Sunshine Project has revealed that the U.S. Army has developed and patented a new grenade that it says can be used to wage biowarfare. They argue that this is in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention, which explicitly prohibits development of bioweapons delivery devices.


Back to Bioweapons? -- Mark Wheelis & Malcolm Dando  -- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists  -- January 1, 2003
Chemical / Biological Warfare

The authors accuse the U.S. of rejecting a recent bioweapons protocol because it is committed to continuing and expanding its secret bioweapons research programs.


Putting Teeth in the Biological Weapons Convention -- Jonathan B. Tucker  -- Issues in Science and Technology  -- April 1, 2002
Chemical / Biological Warfare

Jonathan Tucker argues that the U.S. position on the Biological Weapons Convention is untenable and he urges the Bush administration to "join with other nations in taking urgent and meaningful steps to reinforce the BWC." The article also contains a sidebar on the need for better self-regulation within the scientific community on "dangerous research" such as the Mousepox experiments.


Nongovernmental Groups Launch Alternative Treaty Compliance Network -- David Ruppe  -- Global Security Newswire  -- November 11, 2002
Chemical / Biological Warfare

Facing no prospect that Biological Weapons Convention states will approve an inspections mechanism for verifying compliance any time soon, a group of organizations here today announced the launch of a nongovernmental network for gathering information and reporting on biotechnological activities worldwide.


The Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis: Incapacitants and Chemical Warfare -- Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program  -- Center for Nonproliferation Studies  -- November 4, 2002
Chemical Weapons

The authors analyze the recent Russian use of chemical weapons to resolve a hostage crisis and conclude that "not only is it apparent that the use of the opiate gas was legitimate given the circumstances, the decision to do so appears in the end to have been morally justified from the perspective of the Russians."


U.S. Drops Bid to Strengthen Germ Warfare Accord -- Peter Slevin  -- Washington Post  -- September 18, 2002
Chemical / Biological Warfare

The Bush administration has abandoned an international effort to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention against germ warfare, advising its allies that the United States wants to delay further discussions until 2006.

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