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Biological Weapons

  • Banning Long-Range Missiles in the Middle East: A First Step for Regional Arms Control
    Arms Control Today
    May 2, 2012

    Although the goal of ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is receiving increased attention, it remains a distant prospect. Achieving such an ambitious goal will require a series of incremental steps even to begin the process. An agreement that bans the development and possession of ballistic missiles capable of flying more than 3,000 kilometers and includes members of the Arab League, Iran, Israel, and Turkey is a reasonable first step toward a WMD-free Middle East.
  • BWC Meeting Makes Incremental Changes
    Arms Control Today
    January 12, 2012

    The 2011 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference ended Dec. 22 with participants generally saying they were satisfied with the consensus agreement on a final document but with many expressing some disappointment that the conference failed to adopt significant changes in the treaty regime.
  • Science and Politics, People and Process: Coping With Biological Weapons Dilemmas
    Arms Control Today
    November 2, 2011

    Biological weapons seem to have lost their appeal—as an object of policy concern, that is. From the early 1960s, when nonproliferation emerged as an international security challenge, until the 1990s, the nonproliferation agenda was dominated by nuclear issues. Chemical and biological weapons were deemed a comparatively minor matter, the province of only a small, largely technical community laboring in relative obscurity as far as senior policymakers were concerned. Beginning in the mid-1990s, however, as the product of an unusual combination of developments in Iraq, the Soviet Union, and Japan, chemical and biological weapons began to climb up the global security agenda.
  • In Memoriam: Jonathan B. Tucker (1954–2011)
    Arms Control Today
    August 30, 2011

    Jonathan B. Tucker, a member of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors and leading biological and chemical weapons expert, died recently at his home in Washington, D.C. He will be deeply missed. His departure leaves a tremendous vacuum in the field of biological and chemical weapons arms control.
  • Enhancing Compliance With an Evolving Treaty: A Task for an Improved BWC Intersessional Process
    Arms Control Today
    June 2, 2011

    Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention can improve their intersessional process, in part by beginning to address treaty compliance issues.
  • Common Ground on the BWC: An Interview With U.S. Special Representative Laura Kennedy
    Interviews
    June 2, 2011

    Interviewed by Daniel Horner and Jonathan B. Tucker
  • Unrest Complicates 2012 Middle East Meeting
    Arms Control Today
    March 3, 2011

    The recent uprisings in the Middle East have clouded the picture for a planned 2012 conference on establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, officials from key countries said.

  • Issues Develop as BWC Review Approaches
    Arms Control Today
    January 10, 2011

    At the annual meeting of parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, delegates were staking out positions on issues that are likely to figure prominently at this year’s review conference.

  • Is Washington Prepared to Lead at the BWC Review Conference?
    Arms Control Today
    January 10, 2011
  • Delegates Catch Early Glimpses of BWC Review
    Arms Control Today
    October 6, 2010

    An August meeting of experts on the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) saw delegates and others starting to focus on next year’s review conference, primarily through informal discussions on topics that are likely to figure prominently at the December 2011 gathering, such as the implications of biotechnological breakthroughs.