NCJ Number
199013
Journal
Nonproliferation Review Volume: 9 Issue: 91 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 48-53
Date Published
2002
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article examines the potential ramifications of the current revolution in biology and pharmacology for the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons and arms control.
Abstract
The author reviews the principal technologies involved in the current revolution in the drug discovery process and then indicates their relevance to the discovery of new chemical/biological weapons (CBW) agents. These technologies include combinatorial chemistry, genomics, microarrays, proteomics, toxicogenomics, and database mining. The relevance of these development to CBW control under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) are then discussed. The CWC and the BWC prohibit the development and possession of chemical and biological weapons, and the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits their use. This discussion focuses on the destabilizing effect of non-lethal CB weapons development. The CWC allows states to possess chemical agents and delivery systems designed for riot control and other law enforcement purposes. Non-lethal chemical agents are otherwise illegal; the CWC defines a CW agent as "any chemical, which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals." Further, the CWC explicitly prohibits the use of riot control agents "as a method of warfare;" however, the United States has interpreted this wording as limiting the prohibition to interstate armed conflict. This interpretation leaves open a wide variety of military operations in which such agents could be legally used, including counterterrorism, peacekeeping, monitoring, etc. The author advises that the same tools that are revolutionizing drug discovery can be used to discover novel biochemical agents for weaponization. Related developments in chemistry and chemical engineering have similar implications. Most of these novel agents will be synthesized from unlisted precursors and will be nearly invisible to the verification regime of the CWC, although their development, production, and stockpiling will be unambiguously prohibited. Probably the best curb on the development of a military capability to wage chemical warfare with riot control agents would be to circumscribe legal munitions and delivery devices to those that are already in common use by police forces worldwide. 21 notes