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eHAPTER TWO CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS Chemical and biological weapons are two types ofweapons of mass destruction that are closely linked historically and to which similar constraints were initially applied. Chemical weapons are essentially gas weapons, that is, chemical compounds that are in a gaseous state when activated, which are contained in shells, bombs, or spray tanks, and are delivered by aircraft, artillery, or ballistic missiles. During World ..... War I, both chlorine and mustard gas weapons were used. Prior to World War II, far more deadly nerve gases were developed but gas weapons were not used between major combatants in that conflict. Toxin weapons are chemical compounds that are the product of processes involving biological organisms. The toxin that causes botulism is an example. Even though toxin weapons are inert like chemical weapons, they are considered to be biological weapons because they are the product of biological processes. Biological weapons are essentially types of bacteria that are intended to be delivered in such a way as to cause disease among enemy troops or in enemy cities. An example of a biological weapon agent is anthrax spores. Biological weapons make poor battlefield weapons but under some conditions could make good terrorist weapons. For example, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen used to say that a ten-pound bag of anthrax spores could devastate a large city. Efforts to ban chemical and biological weapons began in I899 when, at the invitation of Czar Nicholas II, an international peace conference was convened at The Hague with the avowed purpose of limiting the ever more destructive nature of warfare. This first Hague Conference resulted in a signed declaration that outlawed the use of asphyxiating gases in war. The second Hague Conference in I907 prohibited the use of poison or poisoned weapons. Thus poison gas was declared to be an illegal weapon prior to World War I. Nevertheless, poison gas was put to widespread use in that war beginning at Ypres, Belgium, in I9I5. Before the war was over, these weapons had caused more than IOO,OOO deaths and in excess of one million casualties. The public regarded poison gas as a particularly noxious weapon, which led to further efforts to ban it in the I920S. At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies reaffirmed in the Versailles Treaty the prewar ban on the use of poison gas in war and prohibited Germany from future manufacturing of such weapons. At the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference in I922, the United States proposed that similar language prohibiting the use of poison gas in warfare be included in a treaty limiting submarines. The U.S. proposal was adopted, and the U.S. Senate subsequently approved the treaty without a dissenting voteperhaps because a member of the U.S. Senate was included in the U.S. delegation . The treaty never came into force, however, because the requisite French ratification was never obtained as a result of French resistance to some of the submarine provisions. In I925, at a conference in Geneva on the supervision of the international arms trade, the United States proposed a ban on the export of gas for use in war. At the suggestion of France, it was decided to negotiate a protocol prohibiting the use in war of poison gas, and, at the suggestion of Poland, this was broadened to ban biological methods of warfare as well. The result of this negotiation was the Geneva Protocol-formally called the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous , or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare-signed June I7, I925. It banned the use in war of both chemical and biological weapons. As a rule on the conduct of warfare, ratl).er than an arms control agreement, it does not contain verification provisions. Because of reservations adopted by many parties upon ratification, the Geneva Protocol is, in effect, an agreement prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons in war among parties. The reservation adopted by France upon ratification in May of I926 is instructive in this regard. France declared that it is bound to the structures of the Geneva Protocol only as regards relations with other states parties, and it is released from its obligations under the protocol with respect to any enemy state or states whose armed forces or allies do not observe its provisions. The Netherlands, in I930, and the United States, when it finally did ratify in I975, limited this first-use feature to...

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