Despite the progress made by international conventions, biological weapons and chemical weapons still pose a threat, according to a report by the Arms Control Association.
The Chemical Weapons Convention nation-states and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have made progress in destroying declared chemical weapons stockpiles. However, progress in implementing the Biological Weapons Convention has been slower due to the lack of a formal verification mechanism. The CWC is a multilateral treaty that bans chemical weapons and requires their destruction within a specified period. It also prohibits developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, or retaining chemical weapons, the direct or indirect transfer of chemical weapons, chemical weapons use or military preparation for use, assisting, encouraging, or inducing other states to engage in CWC-prohibited activity, and the use of riot control agents "as a method of warfare." The CWC is of unlimited duration and is far more comprehensive than the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which outlaws the use but not the possession of chemical weapons. CWC negotiations started in 1980 at the UN Conference on Disarmament. The convention opened for signature on January 13, 1993, and entered into force on April 29, 1997. The BWC prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling, and use of biological and toxin weapons.
The CWC is implemented by the OPCW, which is headquartered in The Hague and has about 500 employees. OPCW receives declarations detailing chemical weapons-related activities or materials and relevant industrial activities from state parties. After receiving declarations, the OPCW inspects and monitors state parties' facilities and activities pertinent to the convention to ensure compliance.
There are 183 States Parties to the BWC, including Palestine, and four signatories (Egypt, Haiti, Somalia, and Syria). Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BWC (Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu). There are 193 states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Israel has signed but not ratified the convention, and Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor ratified the CWC.
The CWC and the BWC are examples of setting international norms to prevent the use of horrific weapons. Since World War I, the world hasn't experienced much in the way of chemical warfare. However, hideous dictators like Sadaam Hussian and Bashar al-Assad have used chemical weapons.
However, chemical and biological weapons are still a threat as long as they exist. It takes power to eliminate them from the world. The world's leading power centers are the US, EU, Russia, and China. However, the power centers are engaged in a Cold War, making cooperation tough. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, China might invade Taiwan, and the US illegally invaded Iraq and Libya. However, the US has a democratic system that permits change, while Russia and China aren't democratic. Power can be used for the cause of peace if it's used in the right way. In this new Cold War, the two power blocks (the US and its allies and the Russia/China orbit) balance each other with higher defense spending, and diplomacy is becoming less cooperative.
China's power is growing. It is recovering from a century of being a second-rate power and challenging US power in its region. Russia is a revanchist power - seeking to recover territory lost in the Soviet Union's breakup. The US just reelected the right-wing populist Donald Trump as President, whose foreign policy isolationism will not allow the US to engage with the other powers in a productive manner.
Can things get better? Yes! When each great power acts as a policeman in its sphere of influence but decides not to invade countries in that sphere or other spheres. Then, each power can work on the problems of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Hopefully, something like Franklin Roosevelt's Four Policemen would become a reality.
Jason Sibert is the Lead Writer of the Peace Economy Project
