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Remembering the birth of the BWC
Dr Caitríona McLeish The Harvard Sussex Program
on Chemical and Biological Weapons
BWC 40th ANNIVERSARY EVENT Geneva
March 30th 2015
Understanding Biological Disarmament: The Historical Origins of the BWC
July 10th 1969 UK tables Convention for the Prohibition of Biological Methods of Warfare
September 16th 1969
USSR and the socialist group submit an alternative draft convention
November 25th 1969
US President Nixon publicly announces destruction of offensive BW stockpiles (similar announcement on toxins, February 14th 1970)
August 18th 1970 UK tables a revised draft which includes a prohibition on toxins
August 25th 1970 Neutral and non aligned countries introduce their ‘Joint memorandum’
March 30th 1971 The USSR and socialist countries table a draft convention on BW
August 5th 1971 The US and USSR table identical, but separate, drafts in the CCD
September 28th 1971
Final text for Biological (and Toxin) Weapons Convention agreed
April 10th 1972 BWC opens for signature
March 26th 1975 BWC enters into force
Achieving the BWC was not inevitable
Original UN documents, courtesy of The Sussex Harvard Information Bank
“It may look like an academic dispute carried on with excessive stubbornness, but its underlying motivation was the premonition, based on such bitter experiences as the
Partial Test Ban of 1963, that a half-measure, once accepted, would never be completed....”
Alva Myrdal. The Game of Disarmament: How the United States and. Russia Run the Arms Race, New York: Pantheon Books, 1976, p271
Original UN documents, courtesy of The Sussex Harvard Information Bank
To get from agreed text to entry into force required large amounts of ‘invisible’ work
Courtesy of The UK National Archives
The BWC was not a typical treaty
BWC negotiating states (current borders)
Lessons from history
1. The BWC requires collective commitments and actions in support of biological disarmament
2. To sustain the BWC requires much ‘invisible’ work to be done both here in Geneva and in capitals
3. The BWC was born from a process of multilateral diplomacy and success during the next 40 years will require continued multilateral effort but increasingly this requires new or renewed engagement with non state actors.
For more information on Understanding Biological Disarmament: The Historical Origins of the BWC
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/cbw
Professor Brian Balmer [email protected]
@DrBrianBalmer
Dr Caitríona McLeish [email protected]
@camcleish
Dr Alexander Spelling [email protected]
@AlexSpelling
