Biological Weapons

It might be difficult to prove any weaponisation intent or man-made origins to the SARS-CoV-2. Yet, the mass deaths and disruption caused by the virus forebodes imminent exploitation of biological agents for political ends.

The Cold-War During the cold war and for ten years thereafter, the United States of America (USA) and other countries developed physical and medical countermeasures to protect their military forces… Continue reading Biological Security and Health in the Post-pandemic World: The Infectious Disease Community’s ‘Mushroom Cloud’?

The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)1 and 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention2 (CWC) serve as the norms against the use of biological and chemical weapons, respectively. However, recent biological and chemical… Continue reading Time to Bolster Global Biological and Chemical Defense Capabilities

In June 2018, German police arrested a Tunisian man in Cologne for trying to build a biological weapon using the deadly toxin, ricin.1   In October 2018, researchers flagged a… Continue reading Biological Weapons: The Impact of New Technologies

Use of biological pathogens to attack populations continues to be one of the major threats today, whether by state actors or in the hands of non-state actors, amorphous entities or… Continue reading The BWC Review: Issues and Challenges

Numerous planning documents and policy statements are being generated in the lead-up to the Eighth Review Conference to the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) for which Ambassador György… Continue reading Preparations for the Eighth Review Conference to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention

East and Southeast Asia are known to get affected by various diseases routinely. Particularly, various waterborne and other diseases likely malaria and dengue fever commonly affect the regions. There is a concern that global warming may translate into explosive growth of mosquito-borne diseases. In addition to this, growing number of natural disasters are found escalating the health related challenges. All this eventually poses a threat to health, economic and human security.

This study attempts to profile China’s biological warfare programme (BWP), with special reference to biological weapons (BW) capabilities that exist in facilities affiliated with the defence establishment and the military. For that purpose, a wide variety of facilities affiliated with the defence establishment and with the military are reviewed and profiled. The outcome of that analysis points at 12 facilities affiliated with the defence establishment, plus 30 facilities affiliated with the PLA, that are involved in research, development, production, testing or storage of BW.

Pakistan is a state party to the Biological Weapons Convention, yet at least part of its related outward conduct is rather exhibitory, aiming to foster the image of an obedient, sheer science- and protection-oriented profile. Although it is publicly accentuated that an ongoing Pakistani biological weapons (BW) programme cannot be proved, it is fairly clear that some Western intelligence agencies possess classified information that is highly supportive of such an active programme taking place in actuality.

Bio terrorism is emerging more as possibility in the 21st century not only because of the changing nature of terrorism but also because of rapid growth in life sciences. These developments have been a concern for the BWC regime. In this backdrop the paper discusses the 7th Review Conference which was concluded in December 2011.