Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfareless developed than chemical ones, negotiating atreaty for biological pathogens and toxins posed amuch greater probability of success. Chemical weaponswere already widely distributed among largeand small nations as a valued retaliatory deterrentin the event of a chemical weapons attack or an attackby a stronger aggressor. Extensive and intrusiveverification and assurance mechanisms would haveto be developed, a challenging demand for hostileand mistrusting Cold War adversaries. Linking theseemingly intractable problem of chemical armsto the more manageable biological weapons issuecaused considerable deliberative conflict, althoughtreaty negotiations ultimately arrived at the SovietUnion’s position: chemical and biological arms controlwould be linked as they had been in the GenevaProtocol.In 1969 and 1970 President Nixon facilitated discussionsby declaring a unilateral ban on the offensivedevelopment of biological warfare agents, includingtoxins. Deliberations leading up to the BiologicalWeapons Convention of 1972 resulted in formal languagethat provided an impetus for discussions towardeliminating the much more extensively developedchemical warfare capabilities of Eastern Bloc andWestern nations:Article IX: Each State Party to this Convention affirmsthe recognized objective of effective prohibitionof chemical weapons and, to this end, undertakes tocontinue negotiations in good faith with a view toreaching early agreement on effective measures forthe prohibition of their development, production andstockpiling and for their destruction, and on appropriatemeasures concerning equipment and means ofdelivery specifically designed for the production oruse of chemical agents for weapons purposes. 94The treaty, negotiated by the UN, called forconfidence-building measures through the exchangeof technical and scientific information and materialsupport. It also set the framework for the provisionof future data exchanges and negotiations toward theelimination of chemical weapons.US-Soviet Weapons Destruction AgreementWith the fall of many of the communist governmentsin Eastern Europe and improved relations withthe Soviet Union, the United States and Soviet Unionsigned a bilateral chemical weapons destruction agreementon June 1, 1990. In support of this agreement,the secretary of defense canceled most of the newchemical retaliatory program and the Army decidedto suspend its new binary chemical production facilitiesin 1990. 76,95,96The Chemical Weapons ConventionThe Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee wasexpanded in 1969 and renamed the “Conference of theCommittee on Disarmament,” and in 1984 renamed the“Conference on Disarmament.” In 1980 a Conferenceof the Committee on Disarmament working groupwas tasked to design an acceptable text for a conventionbanning chemical weapons. 97 Over the 12-yearperiod of its development, the CWC treaty involvedconsultation with military and chemical industry representatives,which led to carefully defining regulatedchemicals and working out effective inspection andverification procedures.A high-level state department meeting in 1989formalized mechanisms allowing for visits, dataexchanges, and challenge inspections required for ademilitarization treaty, including that for chemicalweapons. On May 13, 1991, US President GeorgeBush advanced his 1989 plan before the UN to destroy98% of the US stockpile of chemical weapons inthe first 8 years of a new, proposed treaty. Under thenew treaty’s conditions, Bush pledged to destroy allUS chemical weapons within 10 years and never touse chemical weapons again. 98 However, anticipateddifficulties in chemical weapon demilitarization anddestruction might prolong the presence of chemicalweapon depots. This message sent a clear challenge toother nations to eliminate their chemical weapons. TheBilateral Verification Experiment and Data ExchangeAgreement, nicknamed the “Wyoming MOU” (Memorandumof Understanding), called for visits and dataexchanges in 1990, followed by further data transferand a limited number of challenge inspections in 1994.A final chemical weapons treaty draft was submittedto the UN General Assembly in June of 1992. The Organizationfor the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons(OPCW), located in The Hague, was to be responsiblefor overseeing the CWC treaty. The CWC was convenedin Paris in 1993 and the treaty was implementedin April 1997. The United States ratified the treaty onApril 24, 1997, a few days before it went into effect. 87By April 2006 178 nations, or “states parties,” hadratified the CWC. Eight nonsignatory states remain,including the Syrian Arab Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia,Lebanon, and North Korea (Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea). Eight states have signed but notratified the treaty, including Burma (Myanmar) andIsrael. 99 The treaty leaves in doubt the developmentand use of chemical warfare agents by developing nationsor nonsigners of such agreements, most notablyLibya, Iraq, and North Korea. Chemical warfare treaty138