The Implementation of Legally Binding Measures to Strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

Incidents of bioterrorism and biowarfare are likely to recur, leading to increased public concern and government action. The deficiencies of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) are in urgent need of attention: the BTWC is the central international agreement to prevent the proliferation of biological warfare programmes.

Uniquely, this book is written by diplomats involved in the decade-long effort (1991-2001) in which State Parties to the BTWC tried to agree a Protocol to the Convention with legally binding measures to strengthen its effectiveness, and academics concerned with the negotiations. Just before negotiations foundered, when the Chairman's proposed text was virtually complete, the problems and proposed solutions were examined thoroughly, leading to this book.

The book is wide-ranging in its review of the history of biological warfare, the reasons why the current biological revolution is of such concern, and the main features of the BTWC itself. The core of the book examines the key elements of the proposed protocol - declarations, visits, challenge-type investigations, and enhanced international cooperation - and the implications for government, industry and biodefence, giving us all a better understanding of what still remains to be done to avert a biowarfare catastrophe.

• Chemical Weapons
• Evolution
• Nation
• biotechnology
• education
• toxin
• weapons

• University of Texas, Dallas, USA

  Marie Isabelle Chevrier

• Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Warsaw, Poland

  Krzysztof Chomiczewski

• WMD Centre, NATO HQ, Brussels, Belgium

  Henri Garrigue

• Teleki László Institute, Budapest, Hungary

  György Granasztói

• Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, England

  Malcolm R. Dando, Graham S. Pearson

Policies and ethics