Fighting biological warfare
Swift action is needed to curb the prospect of disease being deliberately applied for military or terrorist purposes through biological warfare, writes Stephen Pullinger, director of the International Security Information Service in this week's BMJ.
Potentially capable of inflicting casualties on the scale of nuclear weapons, biological warfare has the added bonus of being cheap and easy to produce. And the widely held assumption that the use of biological agents is only minimally effective in war is false, he contends. Several countries have already developed biological weapons, and the biotechnology revolution could speed up that process and even offer the possibility of genetic weapons targeted at specific groups of people, he cautions.
The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of such arms, came into force 25 years ago, but contains no provisions to ensure that States are not cheating on their undertakings. The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 does contain such provisions, but attempts to include the same in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention hinge on a legally binding protocol over which disagreements still remain.
A protocol alone cannot prevent the proliferation of biological weapons admits Dr Pullinger, but it can strengthen the "web of deterrence" and consolidate international responses to non-compliance. But concerted political will is needed, and needed now if such a legal framework is to be swiftly put in place.
Contact:
Dr Stephen Pullinger, International Security Information Service, London
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2941
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 2748
Email: isis@isisuk.demon.co.uk