Biological weapons convention in 1972. Medical search. Frequent questions

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans biological and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use. (wikipedia.org)
Having entered into force on 26 March 1975, the BWC was the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. (wikipedia.org)
The BWC sought to supplement the Geneva Protocol and was negotiated in the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva from 1969 to 1972, following the conclusion of the negotiation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. (wikipedia.org)
This was the first multilateral disarmament treaty that banned the development, production, and stockpiling of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. (armscontrol.org)
This is a multilateral treaty that requires, within a certain timeframe, the ultimate destruction of chemical weapons and the prohibition of development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. (armscontrol.org)
This treaty prohibits Latin American states from not only acquiring and possessing nuclear weapons, but also from allowing the storage or deployment of nuclear weapons on their territories by other states. (armscontrol.org)
This treaty is the basis of international cooperation on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons by promoting disarmament, nonproliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. (armscontrol.org)
The award honors Meselson's leading role in the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), an international treaty that not only affirmed the existing ban on the use of biological weapons, but also banned the production, stockpiling, and offensive research into biological weapons. (belfercenter.org)
The 1925 Geneva Protocol, an international treaty that the United States had never ratified, did prohibit the use of chemical and biological weapons in international conflicts. (belfercenter.org)
Next, Meselson and his peers wanted an international legally-binding treaty that was more stringent than the Geneva Protocol-one that would provide for a verification system as well as prohibiting offensive research and stockpiling of biological weapons. (belfercenter.org)
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Treaty further banned the use of certain chemical weapons in all circumstances. (tvtropes.org)
What is Syria's official international treaty status with respect to weapons of mass destruction? (ips-dc.org)
Syria is a signatory of the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation (NPT) treaty and has signed but not ratified the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. (ips-dc.org)
And at least after the treaty came into effect we wound down our offensive biological warfare program. (ratical.org)
Nixon told the world that the US would initiate an international treaty to prevent the use of these weapons ever again. (ahrp.org)
The Biological Weapons Convention established conferences to be held every 5 years to strengthen the treaty. (ahrp.org)
Late in July it was the turn of the 1972 treaty outlawing germ warfare. (dhushara.com)
For six year 56 countries have been negotiating a treaty that would create verification rules and international inspectors to enforce what was previously just a pious pledge not to produce biological weapons. (dhushara.com)
The 1925 Geneva Protocol, which bans the wartime use of chemical and also biological weapons, was an emphatic reaction to the use of chemical weapons in World War I, but legal institutions that would sanction violations of the treaty have evolved only with difficulty. (springer.com)
A BWC treaty was signed in 1975, which completely banned the production of all types of Weapons of Mass Destruction (nuclear, chemical, radiological, and biological). (scienceabc.com)
Likewise, this Report addresses questions of Soviet noncompliance with existing arms control agreements, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the Geneva Protocol on Chemical Weapons, and the Limited Test Ban Treaty. (reaganlibrary.gov)
Founded in 1995 during the NPT Review and Extension Conference, Abolition 2000 is an international non-governmental global network working for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework. (nti.org)
The Treaty on the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba , was opened for signature in Cairo in April 1996. (nti.org)
This year, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) - a cornerstone of international humanitarian law and the first disarmament treaty to ban an entire class of weapons - will undertake its Eighth Review Conference. (the-trench.org)
There remain, however, serious challenges to this norm and to the treaty, and we can neither afford to be complacent nor fail to make full use of the opportunity presented by the Eighth Review Conference to ensure that the Biological Weapons Convention meets the needs and challenges of the modern world. (the-trench.org)
In the same year that SALT I was signed, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty were also concluded. (internationalschoolhistory.com)

In its final report of September 24, 1993, VEREX described and analyzed 21 such measures, including but not limited to declarations of biological agents, on-site inspections, and multilateral information sharing. (nti.org)
While it prohibits the use of such weapons, it does not prohibit their production, development, and stockpiling, gaps covered by later treaties such as the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). (bnblegal.com)

While the history of biological warfare goes back more than six centuries to the siege of Caffa in 1346, international restrictions on biological warfare began only with the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibits the use but not the possession or development of chemical and biological weapons. (wikipedia.org)
This prohibits nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, under water, and in any other environment if the explosions cause radioactive debris to be present outside the territory of a responsible state. (armscontrol.org)
Eventually we supported and became a party to the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972 that prohibits research, development, testing of biological weapons, agents, components, etc., except for prophylactic and defensive purposes. (ratical.org)
183 States have ratified the BWC, which prohibits the development, production, acquisition and use of biological weapons. (unidir.org)

The negotiations gained further momentum when the United States decided to unilaterally end its offensive biological weapons program in 1969 and support the British proposal. (wikipedia.org)
the United States, which by then had its own offensive biological weapons program, sought to understand what the Japanese had learned. (thebulletin.org)

This prevented states from placing nuclear weapons or other WMD's into Earth's orbit, and prohibited states from installing such weapons on the Moon or celestial bodies or stationing them in outer space in any other manner. (armscontrol.org)
The CIA, in a report covering the first half of 2002, describes Syria as actively pursuing biological weapons, positioning itself to start a nuclear weapons program, and enhancing its existing chemical weapons program. (ips-dc.org)
Two, we had a massive superiority in nuclear weapons anyway. (ratical.org)
It has been claimed that Nixon's declarations resulted from careful calculations that the US was far ahead technically of most other nations in its chemical and nuclear weapons. (ahrp.org)
Now, with the advent of nuclear weapons, it seems to most thoughtful people that war, at least major war, is no longer an option. (cadmusjournal.org)
Nuclear weapons are going to be with us for a long time. (justsecurity.org)
The adoption of a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons would go a long way toward this objective. (justsecurity.org)
In response, the United States began to build nuclear weapons at an "industrial rhythm," as the French put it. (justsecurity.org)
By the 1960s, the United States had produced more than 70,000 nuclear weapons, with approximately 31,200 fully constructed weapons in the national stockpile at one time. (justsecurity.org)
A U.S. initiative to outlaw nuclear weapons and to internationalize global stocks of fissile material for use in peaceful nuclear programs which became know as the Baruch Plan. (nti.org)

The BWC was opened for signature on 10 April 1972 with ceremonies in London, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., and it entered into force on 26 March 1975 after the ratification by 22 states, including its three depositary governments (the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States). (wikipedia.org)
And we did so: the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction , or Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) for short, which entered into force in 1975. (ahrp.org)

The Geneva Protocol (1925) led to the banning of chemical weapons being deployed against enemy nationals in international armed conflicts. (tvtropes.org)
It is one of 132 countries that are state parties to the 1925 "Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous of Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare," but it has not signed the 1994 Chemical Weapons Convention. (ips-dc.org)
The 1925 Geneva protocol was the first international law to prohibit the use of biological weapons. (scienceabc.com)
The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) held in 1972 supported the Geneva Protocol, inhibiting not only the use of bioweapons, but also their development, production, procurement, transfer, and stockpiling. (scienceabc.com)

Some of Nixon's advisors believed that the United States should retain the right to use artificially synthesized versions of naturally-derived toxins as weapons while renouncing the use of natural-toxin weapons. (belfercenter.org)
Another of Meselson's policy papers, "What Policy for Toxins," persuaded Nixon to reject this distinction and to renounce the use of all toxin weapons. (belfercenter.org)
Before the 20th century, biological warfare took three main forms: (1) deliberate poisoning of food and water with infectious or toxic material, (2) use of microorganisms or toxins in some form of weapon system, and (3) use of biologically inoculated fabrics. (medscape.com)
There are numerous other instances of the use of plant toxins, venoms, and other poisonous substances to create biological weapons in antiquity. (wikipedia.org)
Following pointed reminders that Nixon had not eschewed the use of toxins, in February 1970 Nixon announced we would also get rid of our toxin weapons also, which included snake, snail, frog, fish, bacterial, and fungal toxins that could be used for assassinations and other purposes. (ahrp.org)
Biological weapons are microbes like bacteria , viruses, fungi, or the toxins produced by them, which are then used to cause large-scale destruction and death to other living organisms. (scienceabc.com)
The term "biological weapons" or "bioweapons" refers to the use of pathogenic bacteria, viruses or fungus, and the harmful toxins produced by them, to cause large-scale infections in humans during warfare. (scienceabc.com)
Although the Convention is uniquely broad and bans "microbial or other biological agents, or toxins, whatever their origin or method of production," its States Parties have recognised the importance of staying informed about relevant advances in science and technology. (unoda.org)
The Conference declared that the Convention is comprehensive in its scope and that all naturally or artificially created or altered microbial and other biological agents and toxins, as well as their components, regardless of their origin and method of production and whether they affect humans, animals or plants, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes, are unequivocally covered by Article I. (unoda.org)
The BWC is the lynchpin of global efforts to ensure that disease or toxins are never used as a weapon. (the-trench.org)

The treaty's full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction. (wikipedia.org)
Biological weapons include any organism or toxin found in nature that can be used to incapacitate, kill, or otherwise impede an adversary. (medscape.com)
Cédric Apercé presented on the international legal framework for biosecurity and dangerous pathogen management: the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the UN Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004). (vertic.org)
This is the Royal Societys response to the Green Paper Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: Countering the Threat from Biological Weapons, published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British Government in April 2002. (royalsociety.org)
The FCO published the Green Paper to solicit the views of Members of Parliament, NGOs, other organisations and individuals with an interest in the subject of strengthening the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). (royalsociety.org)
Created in September 1991 during the Third Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), VEREX was tasked with identifying measures that could be used to determine whether a state party to the BTWC is "developing, producing, stockpiling, acquiring, or retaining" biological weapons (BW). (nti.org)
In 1972 the United States signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, calling for the destruction of all stocks of offensive bioweapons agents, and termination of all research on bioweapons. (biologywriter.com)

All activities implemented by WHO on prevention, preparedness and response to natural, accidental or deliberate releases of biological, chemical and radiological agents involve the closest possible coordination with relevant national and international organizations. (who.int)
A deliberate release of biological, chemical or radiological agent would likely be considered initially as a natural event, unless the agent had been spread overtly or on a massive scale, and may prove difficult to distinguish from a naturally occurring disease event. (who.int)

And they began to pour massive amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, into researching and developing what they said were defensive biological agents. (ratical.org)
US government agencies are supposed to do defensive biological warfare research in these labs. (thefallingdarkness.com)

Imagine weapons like the gigantic tankers and rifles used in wars, and now imagine bioweapons (like viruses and bacteria), which are invisible to the naked eye. (scienceabc.com)
The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has categorized biological agents used as bioweapons into three major categories-Category A, Category B, and Category C. (scienceabc.com)
Anyone watching that test that day knew beyond any doubt that biological weapons really work, that bioweapons could be used to kill millions of people. (biologywriter.com)

On April 14, in a joint press conference with the Kuwait Foreign Minister, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared: "[W]e are concerned that Syria has been participating in the development of weapons of mass destruction and, as the President noted, specifically on chemical weapons. (ips-dc.org)
And we believe, in light of this new environment, they should review their actions and their behavior, not only with respect to who gets haven in Syria and weapons of mass destruction, but especially the support of terrorist activity. (ips-dc.org)
Ballistic missiles, long- range aircraft, and weapons of mass destruction have made the security offered by national boundaries even more illusory. (gdrc.org)
The deliberate release of biological agents as biological weapons to bring about the mass destruction of humans, human-made structures, or the biosphere is classified as biological warfare. (scienceabc.com)
It was notably overseen by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a combat support agency of Pentagon which deals with weapons of mass destruction. (thepeoplesvoice.tv)

This step could dampen the effects of biological weapons should they ever be used. (unidir.org)

He has been a consultant to the United Nations Centre for Disarmament, and has convened SIPRI and Pugwash symposia on matters relating to chemical weapons. (sipri.org)
The BWC was discussed and negotiated in the UN disarmament forum starting in 1969 and opened for signature in 1972. (belfercenter.org)

It has taken over 40 years, but in 2022 all declared stocks of chemical weapons had been destroyed by the USA, by Russia, and the other 191 member nation signatories. (ahrp.org)

This was the first multilateral agreement that extended prohibition of chemical agents to biological agents. (medscape.com)
Second , states need to strengthen the international prohibition against biological weapons. (unidir.org)

Dr. Boyle drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the US implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. (thefallingdarkness.com)
He was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. (claritypress.com)
Ken Alibekov, former first deputy chief of research and production for the Russian biological weapons program, reports that by 1989 dozens of tons of weaponized smallpox had been produced. (biologywriter.com)
Responding to the extensive use of chemical weapons between belligerents in the Iran-Iraq War and the increasing number of chemical weapon-capable states, a Conference on Chemical Weapons Use was held in Paris in January 1989. (bnblegal.com)
In fact, Boyle was the one who called for biowarfare legislation at the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, and the one who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and signed into law by George Bush, Sr. (bitterrootbugle.com)

Analysts concur that Syria has developed chemical weapons and attribute the development to Syria's fear of Israeli nuclear capabilities. (ips-dc.org)
Producing biological weapons with predictable, significant effects - as opposed to crude opportunistic efforts to spread pathogens - remains a complex feat. Most of the world's nations eventually renounced these capabilities and joined the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) . (unidir.org)

The BWC was an agreement signed by 183 countries that Ban biological weapons through a countries' self-regulatory agreement to prohibit the development, production, and storage of biological agents or related equipment capable of carrying out a biological attack (UNODA 2017). (biotech.vision)

Biological warfare became more sophisticated against both animals and humans during the 20th century. (medscape.com)

The American biowarfare system was terminated in 1969 by President Nixon when he issued his Statement on Chemical and Biological Defense Policies and Programs. (wikipedia.org)
George Mason University Professor Greg Koblentz, the director of the school's biodefense graduate program, said the bacterium that causes anthrax infection has been the most commonly studied biological agent in modern biowarfare programs. (thebulletin.org)

During World War II, the Japanese operated a secret biological warfare research facility in Manchuria and carried out human experiments on Chinese prisoners. (medscape.com)
And employing new verbiage to shield this effort from scrutiny, biological warfare research was renamed as "gain-of-function" research. (ahrp.org)

American law professor Francis A. Boyle, answers questions for tvxs.gr and reveals that USA have been using West Africa as an offshore to circumvent the Convention on Biological Weapons and do bio-warfare work. (thefallingdarkness.com)
As a result of Boyle's antibiological warfare work, which goes back to the early days of the Reagan administration - a time in which they were using DNA genetic engineering to manufacture biological weapons - Boyle has carefully followed "mysterious outbreaks of disease in both humans and animals around the world" that have appeared since then. (bitterrootbugle.com)

Active defenses use weapon systems or countermeasures to defend against an attack. (nti.org)

What is the history of biological warfare? (thebulletin.org)

WASHINGTON - The United States plans to produce chemical and biological agents, including a deadly new form of anthrax, as part of a 'defensive' progr-amme. (dhushara.com)
Because aerosols are a means for delivering chemical and biological agents, they can play an important role in weaponizing these substances. (nti.org)

The Virtual Biosecurity Center (VBC) is a global multi-organizational initiative spearheaded by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) committed to countering the threat posed by the development or use of biological weapons and the responsible use of science and technology. (virtualbiosecuritycenter.org)
They engaged in dual-use research and development of biological agents, that is research that could be put to both offensive uses and defensive uses at the same time. (ratical.org)
They were clearly biological warfare contracts and the tip-off on any of these contracts is they call for the development in the contract of an aerosol delivery device. (ratical.org)
It is now 2023, and during the 48 years the Biological Weapons Convention has been in force the wall it was supposed to build against the development, production, and use of biological weapons has been steadily eroded. (ahrp.org)
The development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons were outlawed by the Biological Weapons Convention, signed by more than 150 countries. (english-for-students.com)
The devastating impact of COVID-19 may inspire some States to consider the development of biological weapons in the future. (unidir.org)
Despite international efforts in the 1990s, it still has no effective provision to assess compliance or investigate allegations of biological weapons development . (unidir.org)
RT reports: The center, which is officially called the R. Lugar Center for Public Health Research, is described as a "brand new facility" tasked with the "prevention of proliferation of technology, pathogens and expertise related to the development of biological weapons" by the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), an agency of Georgia's Health Ministry. (thepeoplesvoice.tv)
Some of them allegedly involve experiments on people that sometimes ended with the deaths of test subjects, while other files imply some military-related research and the development of biological weapons. (thepeoplesvoice.tv)
The norm against the development and use of these weapons remains strong and continues to grow with each new State Party. (the-trench.org)
SALT I in 1972 limited each power's nuclear arsenals, though it was quickly rendered out-of-date as a result of the development of MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle). (internationalschoolhistory.com)

During World War I, the Germans developed anthrax, glanders, cholera, and a wheat fungus for use as biological weapons. (medscape.com)
Japan's infamous Unit 731 conducted grotesque experiments on prisoners to assess the effects of biological agents like the bacteria that causes cholera, including dissections on living, unanesthetized people. (thebulletin.org)
The German army used anthrax and cholera as biological weapons. (scienceabc.com)

In particular, it did not prevent multiple states from starting and scaling offensive biological weapons programs, including the United States (active from 1943 to 1969) and the Soviet Union (active from the 1920s until at least 1992). (wikipedia.org)

Finally, Nixon and Kissinger decided to get rid of this offensive biological warfare program on two grounds. (ratical.org)

They evaluate the extent to which these CBMs contribute to preventing or reducing the occurrence of ambiguities, doubts, and suspicions which might be raised about compliance with the BW convention, and how CBMs contribute to improving international co-operation in the field of peaceful biological activities. (sipri.org)
SIPRI Chemical & Biological Warfare Studies is a series of studies intended primarily for specialists in the field of CBW arms control and for people engaged in other areas of international relations or security affairs whose work could benefit from a deeper understanding of particular CBW matters. (sipri.org)
Progress will also require fostering international cooperation in biotechnology and building global networks of experts to detect and respond to the use of biological weapons. (unidir.org)
An important example of a legal failure to support the protocol occurred at the 1946-1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), just when it might be expected that Imperial Japan would be charged for its chemical and biological warfare (CBW) waged against China from the late 1930s into World War II. (springer.com)
The international scientific community has repeatedly warned that developments in science and technology have lowered every technological barrier to acquiring and using biological weapons. (the-trench.org)
2016). This case not only demonstrates the tragic consequences of the misuse of biotechnology but also highlights the willful neglect and gross unreliability of international agreements, in this case, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) 1972. (biotech.vision)
The conference adopted a Convention for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms, Munitions and Implements of War, which has not entered into force and, as a separate document, a Protocol on the use of gases. (bnblegal.com)

Following the failure in December last year of the States Parties to agree on the text of a Protocol to the Convention, renewed efforts have been made to find ways of making the BTWC more effective. (royalsociety.org)
The Green Paper discusses UK priorities and the next steps ahead of the reconvened BTWC Fifth Review Conference in November 2002, and invites comments on the outlined proposals and any other ideas for strengthening the Convention. (royalsociety.org)

Can Invisible Microbes Act As Weapons? (scienceabc.com)

During the past two decades, Member States have on several occasions expressed concerns about the possibility that biological and chemical agents might deliberately be used to harm populations. (who.int)
An alert about the risk of such agents being used as weapons usually comes from a nation's security or defence sectors. (who.int)
The scenarios used by some health ministries for planning have included the release of combinations of biological and chemical agents, simultaneous release in more than one location, and/or use of unknown chemicals or genetically modified organisms. (who.int)
This global network provides access to technical expertise for alerting, verifying and responding to disease-causing biological and chemical agents. (who.int)
General Sada and others have described the contents of the summer 2002 airlift to have been drums-some yellow-with labels on them suggesting that they were filled with chemical weapon pre-cursors, and this is consistent with the binary nerve agents that Saddam had developed where two chemicals would be combined to make a WMD just prior to its use (sometimes even combined in the warhead immediately prior to employment). (floppingaces.net)
The potential spectrum of bioterrorism ranges from hoaxes and actual use of agents by individuals or groups against others, to state-sponsored terrorism that employs biological warfare (BW) agents and delivery systems that can produce mass casualties. (medscape.com)
The use of biological agents is not a new concept, and history is replete with examples of biological weapons use. (medscape.com)
The German-American physician Anton Dilger established a secret biological laboratory in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with the intent to grow the causative agents of anthrax and glanders. (medscape.com)
But she said there were plans to develop agents to cause such diseases as a new and virulent strain of anthrax within the restrictions of the Biological Weapons Convention. (dhushara.com)
This approach must consider the integration of multiple modes of management, risk analysis in the face of inherent uncertainties concerning what agents will be introduced, and potential interactions among multiple biological agents. (nationalacademies.org)

The statement ended, unconditionally, all U.S. offensive biological weapons programs. (wikipedia.org)

Dana Perkins, PhD Chief of the Biological Weapons Nonproliferation and Counterterrorism Branch, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (virtualbiosecuritycenter.org)

The way the Reagan administration did this was to say that we are going to go out and investigate every exotic disease you could possibly imagine for the purpose of developing vaccines to deal with them despite the fact that there was no real evidence that anyone else was investigating these things and therefore we fit within the loophole of the Biological Weapons Convention for prophylactic purposes. (ratical.org)

Attempts to use biological weapons date back to antiquity. (medscape.com)

The role of chemicals in the production of weapons was well established and accelerating, with a growing impact on battlefield combat (Smart 2004 ). (springer.com)

The Hague Convention (1899) [and the second Hague Convention (1907)] that led to rules of declaring and conducting warfare. (tvtropes.org)
The 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions were a breakthrough in articulating new norms to reinforce the concept that the "right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited" (Boserup 1973 , 152). (springer.com)

Biotechnology is defined as the process of modifying an organism or biological system for its intended purpose. (biotech.vision)

In 1937, the Chinese officially presented its first complaints to the League of Nations about Japan's battlefield use of chemical weapons (mustard gas, phosgene and tear gases) against defenseless Chinese troops and civilians. (springer.com)

The nineteenth-century rise of national armies and industrial advances in weaponry began a pattern of increasingly destructive conflicts-the mass slaughter of troops and ruination of terrain-followed by valiant attempts to restrict the conduct of war, which were then followed by worse wars with more dangerously powerful and efficient weapons. (springer.com)

Major advances in the life sciences in recent decades raise the possibility of technical improvements that would make Cold War-era biological arms more effective or herald a new, more targetable generation of these weapons. (unidir.org)
First, advances in science and technology could pose risks which could lead to potential breaches of the Convention. (unoda.org)
On the other hand, scientific advances can be of benefit to the Convention by, for example, improving vaccines and the diagnosis of diseases. (unoda.org)

You wouldn't purposefully develop a biological weapon that is highly contagious that could cause a pandemic because that will affect your country along with everyone else," Koblentz said. (thebulletin.org)

They also developed a plague biological weapon by breeding fleas fed on plague-infected rats, and releasing millions of fleas in aerial attacks on Chinese cities. (medscape.com)
By the 1300s, warring armies in Europe had arrived at the idea of using dead animals and people, including plague victims, as weapons. (thebulletin.org)

Article II: To destroy or divert to peaceful purposes biological weapons and associated resources prior to joining. (wikipedia.org)

These aren't biological weapons laboratories, but the allegations raise important questions. (thebulletin.org)
Third, the United Nations needs geographically representative teams of trained, technically competent experts capable of investigating biological weapons allegations and suspicious outbreaks of disease - even on the territories of the Security Council's permanent five members, if necessary. (unidir.org)

With a fatality rate of 80 percent , inhaled anthrax bacteria can be a deadly weapon. (thebulletin.org)
For example, the 1979 anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk occurred when Soviet scientists accidentally released genetically modified microorganisms from their biological weapons structures. (biotech.vision)

In 1899, the Hague Convention stipulated that bullets must not be designed to expand or flatten within the body, causing grievous harm. (tvtropes.org)

It provides insight into the severity of the threat posed by the proliferation of biological weapons, and it allows one to estimate the effectiveness of different defensive responses (and hence the priority one should assign to each). (nationalacademies.org)

The existing capacity for surveillance of and response to biological disease outbreaks has evolved well during more than 10 years. (who.int)

Verification and Compliance: The Protocol recognizes the significance of bringing together controls on chemical and biological weapons. (bnblegal.com)

Offensive biological research itself was prohibited, and existing biological weapons stockpiles were destroyed. (belfercenter.org)
Experts say the documents that the Russian military allegedly acquired show that labs in Ukraine were working on public health research and aren't evidence of a weapons program. (thebulletin.org)

The Eighth Review Conference also reaffirmed that "Article I applies to all scientific and technological developments in the life sciences and in other fields of science relevant to the Convention. (unoda.org)

Anatomy1

Organisms5

Diseases6

Chemicals and Drugs7

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Psychiatry and Psychology4

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Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena21

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19932

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19752

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Bioweapons3

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Disarmament2

20221

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19895

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UNODA1

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19072

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18991

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