Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, Jun 30, 2009 - History - 479 pages
The threat of biological weapons has never attracted as much public attention as in the past five years. Current concerns largely relate to the threat of weapons acquisition and use by rogue states or by terrorists. But the threat has deeper roots--it has been evident for fifty years that biological agents could be used to cause mass casualties and large-scale economic damage. Yet there has been little historical analysis of such weapons over the past half-century. Deadly Cultures sets out to fill this gap by analyzing the historical developments since 1945 and addressing three central issues: Why have states continued or begun programs for acquiring biological weapons? Why have states terminated biological weapons programs? How have states demonstrated that they have truly terminated their biological weapons programs? We now live in a world in which the basic knowledge needed to develop biological weapons is more widely available than ever before. Deadly Cultures provides the lessons from history that we urgently need in order to strengthen the long-standing prohibition of biological weapons.
 

Contents

1 Historical Context and Overview
1
2 The US BiologicalWeapons Program
9
3 The UK BiologicalWeapons Program
47
4 The Canadian BiologicalWeapons Program andthe Tripartite Alliance
84
5 The French BiologicalWeapons Program
108
6 The Soviet BiologicalWeapons Program
132
7 BiologicalWeapons in NonSovietWarsaw Pact Countries
157
8 The Iraqi BiologicalWeapons Program
169
12 Midspectrum Incapacitant Programs
236
13 Allegations of BiologicalWeapons Use
252
14 Terrorist Use of BiologicalWeapons
284
15 The Politics of Biological Disarmament
304
16 Legal Constraints on BiologicalWeapons
329
17 Analysis and Implications
355
Appendix The BiologicalWeapons Convention
375
Notes
381

9 The South African BiologicalWeapons Program
191
10 Anticrop BiologicalWeapons Programs
213
11 Antianimal BiologicalWeapons Programs
224
Contributors
463
Index
465
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