BioWeapons Report 2004

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BioWeapons Prevention Project

2004

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Table of Contents

Preface . 1

Civil society and the norm against the weaponization of disease: Meeting the challenge . 3

The nature of the BW threat 4

State Programmes . 4

Threats posed by non-state actors 5

Scientific and technological developments . 6

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention 7

NGO responses 8

Establishing a global network . 9

Lessons for BWPP from the pilot project . 10

National implementation legislation for the BTWC . 13

The obligation to adopt national implementation measures 14

Obligations requiring national implementation through legislation 15

Consideration of national legislation to implement treaty obligations 17

Transparency of BTWC implementing legislation . 18

Monitoring the status and effectiveness of BTWC national implementation legislation . 21

Availability of assistance for national implementation legislation and other measures . 22

Proposals to improve the adoption rate, effectiveness and transparency of national implementing

legislation 22

The contribution of CBMs to transparency 25

How the CBMs should work 25

How the CBMs work 26

The non-existent CBM concept 28

The views of states on the CBM process . 29

Nature of the CBMs . 30

Looking to the future 31

Investigations of alleged non-compliance with the BTWC 35

Investigative mechanisms within the BTWC 36

Consultations under Article V 36

Bilateral consultations . 36

Multilateral consultations . 37

Investigations under Article VI . 39

Confidence-building measures 39

Investigative mechanisms outside of the BTWC . 40

UN Secretary-General investigations . 40

Country-specific multilateral inspections 45

Bilateral or trilateral inspection agreements 47

Civil society monitoring . 48

Conclusion 49

Advances in science and technology: Present and future threats 51

Immunology: vulnerability of the immune system to modulation 52

Scientific and technological background 53

Mammalian immune systems 53

Innate immunity of plants 56

Immune evasion by microorganisms . 57

Antigenic variation 57

Additional immune evasion mechanisms . 57

Dual-use aspects of biomedical research 58

Accidental creation of a ‘killer’ mousepox virus . 59

Potentiation of the virulence of vaccinia virus . 60

Future threats . 61

Targeted delivery systems: gene vectors and immunotoxins 61

Immunization with plant foods 63

Vulnerability of the immune system to modulation after immunization 64

Conclusions . 65

Anti-Animal Threats 67

The 2001 FMD epidemic in the UK . 67

Historical precedents of the anti-animal threat . 68

Modern advances and their implication for the anti-animal threat 69

A future anti-animal threat 72

Anti-Plant Threats 79

State programmes . 79

Biological control and plant inoculants 81

Anti-narcotics 82

Genetic modification 83

Advanced biological warfare agents . 84

The threat from incapacitating biochemical agents . 91

Possible modification of traditional agents 93

Future threats: targeting interacting biological systems with possible advanced biological warfare

agents 97

Implications for the BTWC 100

Science and technology considerations at the 7th BTWC Review Conference in 2011 103

The First Review Conference, 1980 103

The Third Review Conference, 1991 . 104

The Fifth Review Conference, 2001 106

Current advances in immunology 108

Some pertinent facts about the immune system 110

Immune evasion strategies 110

Vulnerability of the immune system to attack by bioregulators 111

Assault on the immune system in interaction with the neuroendocrine system 112

The Seventh Review Conference (2011) 113

Conclusion . 113

Chronology July 2002–July 2004 . 115