21 YEARS OF CBW PROTECTION: A CHANGING WORLD

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Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK

2004

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Introduction

The occasion of 21 years of the Swedish Symposiums on Protection against Chemical and

Biological Warfare Agents provides an opportunity to consider the changing world and how the

perceptions of the threat posed by chemical and biological weapons have developed.

Back in 1983, the Cold War was still intense and chemical weapons were recognised as being in the

arsenals of both the Soviet Union and the United States. The main thrust of protection was

therefore against chemical weapons -- mustard, nerve agents and hydrogen cyanide.

Although the Biological Weapons Convention had been opened for signature in 1972 and entered

into force in 1975, the first Review Conference in 1980 had seen major concerns about the Soviet

Union following the release of anthrax from a facility in Sverdlovsk and negotiations towards a

Chemical Weapons Convention were underway in Geneva.

Today, we live in a very different world. The Cold War has dissolved and there is much more

cooperation across the Europe and Russia. There were high hopes in the early 1990s for a new

world order of peace and stability but this has not been realised and we are now faced with an

uncertain world in which there is greater concern about the potential use of chemical or biological

weapons by rogue States or sub State actors and terrorist groups. The range of potential chemical

and biological agents is now recognised as being considerably wider that 21 years ago and the

technical challenge is thus greater than before -- for broad band protective measures effective

against as wide a range of agents as possible. The need for effective protection against a wider

range of chemical and biological agents is therefore greater than ever.

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997 and has made the world a safer

place. However, the first Review Conference last year failed to face up to the potential threat to

the Convention posed by non-lethal or less-than-lethal agents. The Biological Weapons Convention

made progress and was almost at the point in 2001 on reaching agreement on a legally binding

instrument to strengthen the effectiveness and improve the implementation of the Convention

when the United States at the eleventh hour withdrew its support and plunged that Convention into

crisis. If the general purpose criteria in both Conventions are not maintained and reinforced, there

are real dangers for peace and security - and there will be much need for effective protection

against chemical and biological agents.

In this paper, the changing world will be analysed and priorities drawn for international and national

action in the years ahead.