Verification of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (Nato Science Partnership Subseries: 1, 32)

In the summer of 1997 some twelve lecturers and sixty students met for ten days in Budapest Hungary in a NATO Advanced Studies Institute (ASI) to consider "New Scientific and Technical Aspects of Verification of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention". In many ways the meeting was ahead of its time. The Ad Hoc Group was only then about to move to the discussion of a rolling text of the Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). It had been mandated to negotiate the Protocol by the Special Conference which had considered the work of the VEREX process that had taken place following the 1991 Third Review Conference of the Convention. Now, in late 1999, after much further negotiation of the text of the Protocol we are moving towards the endgame of the negotiations. Nevertheless, the scientific and technical issues discussed in the ASI in Hungary continue to be of direct relevance to the verification of the Convention and will continue to be relevant as the eventual Protocol moves from agreement through a Preparatory Commission stage and into full implementation over the next several years. The papers in this volume are much as they were presented in Budapest both in order of presentation and in content. They were designed by the ASI co-directors, Professor Graham Pearson and Ambassador Tibor Toth (Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group) to provide an integrated overview and in-depth analysis of the issues at stake. Front Matter....Pages i-viii The Prohibition of Chemical and Biological Weapons....Pages 1-31 Biological Weapons Proliferation Concerns....Pages 33-76 The Biotechnology Revolution: The Science and Applications....Pages 77-124 The Relevance of Advances in Biotechnology to the Task of Strengthening the BTWC....Pages 125-149 Technological Aspects of Verification: Declarations, Managed Access and Confidential Proprietary Information....Pages 151-159 Technological Aspects of Verification: Investigation of Alleged Use of Biological Weapons....Pages 161-170 Verification Technologies: Sampling and Identification....Pages 171-180 Biological Agent Detection Technology....Pages 181-197 Towards a Verification Protocol....Pages 199-216 Prospects for the Ad Hoc Group....Pages 217-223 New Scientific and Technological Aspects of Verification of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC): An Overview of the ASI and a 1999 Postscript....Pages 225-244 Back Matter....Pages 245-252

The papers in this volume provide an integrated overview and in-depth analysis of the issues involved in the negotiations leading to the Prool to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, involving consideration of the key scientific and technical issues involved and also of the political context within which these issues have to be considered by the negotiators.

The papers in this volume provide an integrated overview and in-depth analysis of the issues involved in the negotiations leading to the Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, involving consideration of the key scientific and technical issues involved and also of the political context within which these issues have to be considered by the negotiators