Chemical Weapons

US Stands By the Chemical Weapons Convention February 4, 2020

While the Trump Administration has retreated from negotiated arms control agreements in many areas ranging from nuclear weapons to anti-personnel landmines, the…

Synthetic Biology and the Chem/Bio Threat May 30, 2017

Synthetic biology, a set of technologies related to the design and fabrication of biological systems, poses an emerging hazard but also provides the tools to mitigate that hazard, according to…

Treatment of Chemical Warfare Casualties October 27, 2016

“Chemical warfare agents remain a significant and continuing threat to military forces,” according to a newly updated manual jointly issued by the Army, Navy, Air Force and…

Report Details DoD Chem/Bio Defense Programs August 11, 2016

Last year the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug to be used as a countermeasure against Yersinia pestis, the biological agent that causes bubonic plague. The drug was developed…

Before Eliminating Syria’s Chemical Weapons, One Must Find Syria’s Chemical Weapons September 17, 2013

Most of the world (including the U.S.) seems to be relieved now that there is affirmative progress towards eliminating Syria’s ghastly chemical weapon (CW) stockpiles, thereby avoiding (at least for now) a military strike that no one really wanted to undertake. The Syrian government has announced that it will soon join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Joining the OPCW will immediately trigger an obligation on Syria’s part to issue a written declaration identifying the number and types of CWs it currently possesses. With history as a guide, we can safely predict that it will be an incomplete and inaccurate declaration. That is true even if Syria fully intends to come clean regarding its CW stockpile. This is the point where good intentions can go awry. The problem here is that no one really trusts Syria. The consequences of such mistrust are informed by experiences in Iraq and Libya over the last 20 years.

FAS Launches Online Chemical Weapons Convention Archive to Mark 2nd Review Conference April 1, 2008

FAS just launched an online compilation of more than 500 documents on the US ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Archive (/blog/cw)…

Iraqi Chemical Weapons Found…at the UN? Don’t Panic! August 30, 2007

Hey, we found the Iraqi WMD’s. They were being stored at the UN! I am sure it will be all over the news by tonight, but it is astonishing…