I.

Introduction

Chemical and Biological Warfare, method of warfare in which toxic or incapacitating chemicals or biological agents are used to further the goals of the combatants. Until the 20th century such warfare was primarily limited to starting fires, poisoning wells, distributing items contaminated by smallpox, and using smoke to confuse the enemy.

II.

Chemical Agents

Greek fire, invented in the 7th century as an incendiary mixture sprayed at the enemy, was probably the first form of chemical warfare. Gases such as tear gas, chlorine gas and phosgene (lung irritants), and mustard gas (causing burns) were first used in World War I to break the trench warfare stalemate. Flame-throwers were also tried but at first proved ineffective because of their short range. Technical improvements and the development of napalm (composed of napthenic and palmitic acids), a thickened petrol that sticks to surfaces and causes horrendous injuries, led to the widespread use of flame weapons in World War II and to its further, extensive use in the Vietnam War.

By the end of World War I, most European powers had integrated gas warfare capabilities into their armies at some level, and nerve gases such as sarin, small amounts of which cause paralysis or death, were developed in Germany between World Wars I and II. Despite the availability of gases, only Japan used them—in China—as World War II became global. After World War II, knowledge of nerve-gas manufacture became widespread.

Gases such as tear gas have been used in limited wars since World War II, such as in the Vietnam War; tear gas is also employed by civilian police forces to quell riots. The use of more deadly agents such as mustard gas and nerve gas has been generally condemned by most countries, but such weapons remain in arsenals, and there is evidence that they were used by Iraq during its war with Iran in the 1980s and that both countries continue to develop them.

Various chemical compounds, such as Agent Orange, that alter the metabolism of plants and cause defoliation, have been employed in modern jungle warfare to reduce the enemy’s cover or deprive the civilian population of necessary food crops. Such chemicals, generally sprayed from the air, also contaminate water and fish; their long-lasting effect on the entire environment and ecosystem makes them particularly devastating. Evidence exists that Agent Orange has caused cancer and birth abnormalities.

III.

Biological Warfare

Several major nations have worked to some degree on the development of biological agents for use in warfare. Selected or adapted from pathogens causing various diseases that attack humans, domestic animals, or vital food crops, such agents include bacteria, fungi, and viruses or the toxins they produce. The pathogens causing botulism, plague, anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease in animals, and stem rust in wheat are among the many that could be directed against opposing armies or the civilian economies supporting them. Genetic engineering also offers the possibility of developing new virulent strains against which an opposing force could not be prepared in advance. Unlike chemical weapons, which become less potent as they disperse, biological weapons can become more potent, sometimes mutating into even more virulent forms.

Large-scale biological warfare has thus far remained theoretical, although in the 1980s it was learned that Japan used biological agents against the Chinese in the 1930s and early 1940s. In the early 1980s, controversial claims were also made that the Soviets, in Afghanistan, and the Vietnamese, in Laos and Cambodia, were using fungal toxins—in a form called “yellow rain”—as biological weapons.

IV.

Dissemination and Protection

The earliest method of disseminating chemical agents was simply to release them from pressurized containers, as the Germans did in World War I. This made the use of these weapons dependent on the wind; quite often the wind would change and bring the chemicals back on to the troops that had dispatched them. Thus, armies turned to better ways of projecting weapons, including mortars, artillery, rockets, aerial bombs, and aerial spray. Biological agents can also be disseminated by releasing insects or animals in a target area.

Whatever the means of dissemination, there are problems incurred in trying to protect “friendly” forces and populations. Many nations are developing programmes to detect lethal agents and decontaminate them. The United States has embarked on an extensive programme for the safe decommissioning of these weapons. Elaborate protective clothing has to be worn in areas of conflict where contamination is possible, with ground forces (and other people entering dangerous areas, such as inspectors and journalists) being trained regularly in how to use the protective equipment within moments of an attack warning.

V.

Warfare Possibilities

The chemical and biological weapons employed in nuclear or conventional war may also play a part in future guerrilla warfare or terrorist sabotage actions. In such situations, inert toxic materials, such as dusts that are activated on contact with moist surfaces such as the lungs, might be surreptitiously sprayed into city air from moving vehicles or from offshore vessels. Another possible tactic is the delivery of soluble toxins into urban water supplies.

Chemical and biological agents have possibilities for use in limited wars. The fact that it does not take a very sophisticated industrial base to produce lethal chemicals makes this a viable means of warfare for developing countries and has led to them being dubbed “the poor man’s atomic bomb” as they are close to nuclear weapons in terms of their destructive power.

VI.

Iraq

The use of chemical weapons by Iraq on its Kurdish population and evidence of Libya’s growing chemical warfare capability reinforces the danger that these weapons will not only proliferate, but could be used not only in future wars, but also in civil war or for the oppression of minorities. On April 3, 1991, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 687, which required Iraq to declare and destroy its stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. In the years following the Gulf War, the UN found no evidence of biological weapons stocks, though it did find thousands of chemical weapons.

According to the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM), following a series of increasingly hampered inspections of Iraqi weapons sites in the 1990s, Iraq was found to have ingredients to make 200,000 litres (44,000 gallons) of the nerve agent VX, a quantity sufficient to kill the world’s population. It was also thought to have the capacity to produce more than 20,000 kg (20 tons) of anthrax; it is estimated that an aerosol spraying 100 kg of anthrax from a height in a densely populated area could kill three million people. In addition to anthrax, plague and botulinum toxin, which Iraq was suspected of having before the Gulf War, UNSCOM inspectors also found 2,000 litres of aflatoxin, which produces liver or lung cancer, and clostridium (gas gangrene). It was also believed that Iraq had built up large stocks of Agent 15, which incapacitates victims by attacking the central nervous system, proving fatal in heavy doses. However, after the US-led invasion of Iraq of 2003 to both disarm that nation and depose the regime of Saddam Hussein, no significant finds were made (see War on Iraq).

VII.

Terrorism

The attraction of such weapons for terrorists is also a matter of great concern, since release of relatively small amounts of toxins in a water supply or into the air could cause a widespread catastrophe. In March 1995, the first major terrorist incident involving chemical warfare occurred in Tokyo, where a weak form of sarin was released into the underground transport system by members of a religious cult. Four people were killed and 3,000 were affected by the sarin. Up to 6 tonnes of the chemical were discovered at premises occupied by cult members. Four subsequent attacks were made on railways in Japan, two of which involved hydrogen cyanide gas.

In February 1998, two white supremacists were arrested in Las Vegas, United States, on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack with a biological agent, believed to be anthrax. Although the agent was later found to be harmless, one of the detainees, a scientist, was at the time of his arrest on probation for obtaining bubonic plague bacteria from a laboratory.

These isolated events have highlighted growing concern over possible terrorist use of chemical or biological agents. Analysts point to the growth of increasingly marginalized groups, including religious fanatics and separatist or survivalist factions, who may be less constrained by the need for public sympathy for their cause.

VIII.

International Control

The Hague Conference of 1899 made an attempt to outlaw projectiles carrying poison gases; the agreement to this effect lasted only until World War I. In Geneva in 1925 a League of Nations protocol against chemical and biological war was signed; it was not, however, ratified by the United States until 1974. The treaty outlaws the first use of such weapons in warfare, but nations generally reserve the right to use them in retaliation. Arms control agreements totally banning chemical warfare have proved difficult to achieve.

A.

Chemical Weapons Convention

At the George Bush-Mikhail Gorbachev summit in June 1990, a treaty was signed providing for both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to reduce stockpiles of chemical weapons. In May 1991, 19 industrial nations—including the United States—committed to adopt controls on the export of 50 common chemicals used to manufacture these weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993 banned manufacture of chemical weapons and restricts trade in substances used to make them. In April 1997 the CWC came into force, and as a result it is estimated that just under 10 per cent of the world’s stockpile had been destroyed by 2004.

B.

Biological Weapons Convention

A treaty totally banning biological warfare was drawn up by the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1971 and approved by the UN General Assembly. Some 80 nations signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which the United States ratified in 1974. This treaty is unique because it outlaws the use of a whole class of weapons among most of the nations of the world. Its effectiveness, however, is still questionable; progress in genetic engineering has also complicated this issue. The 1994 BWC has still to finalize a legally binding protocol for all nations. Verification of a ban on biological weapons is far harder to enforce than its chemical equivalent, as biological agents have to be produced in laboratories before antidotes to them can be made; only small amounts of such stocks would be needed by saboteurs.

When a crisis over weapons in Iraq in February 1998 was resolved by an agreement that allowed UN weapons inspectors unconditional access to all sites, world attention was concentrated on the threat of biological weapons. However, the many discoveries made by UNSCOM inspectors made a successful verification programme more possible in the future. The United States have called for the protocol of the 1994 BWC to be finalized, which would include setting up a rigorous biological warfare inspectorate capable of investigating any illegal use of biological agents, and an international network to monitor emerging infectious diseases. These measures are expected to elicit support from governments aware of the dangers of terrorist attack within their boundaries, although the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries may oppose intrusive measures.