Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons: Promise or Peril?

by Alan Pearson, Marie Chevrier, Mark Wheelis

Overview

Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons examines the promise and peril behind weapons based on natural or synthetic biochemical compounds that are meant to cause rapid incapacitation but not to kill. An agent has yet to be found that can effectively incapacitate people without risk of death when used in a real-world military or law enforcement situation. But revolutionary advances in the life sciences and biotechnology are generating new knowledge and potentially greater capabilities for manipulating human consciousness, emotions, mental functions, and behavior. These advances, coupled with the changing nature of conflict and warfare in the 21st century, are generating renewed government interest in incapacitating biochemical weapons.
Governments, international organizations, and society as a whole have critical decisions to make about whether and how to pursue the development, or conversely the effective prohibition, of incapacitating biochemical weapons. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the scientific, military, humanitarian, legal, and political issues associated with the development and use of incapacitating biochemical weapons. The expert contributing authors explore a wide range of issues pertinent to the topic from science to history to current military interest, arms control, and international law.Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons: Promise or Peril? will be of interest to scientists, the military and law enforcement communities, policy-makers, and all who are concerned about the proliferation of such weapons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739114384
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/12/2007
Series:	Toposophia: Sustainability, Dwelling, Design Series
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.22(d)

About the Author

Alan Pearson is director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Marie Chevrier is associate professor of Public Policy Political Economy at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Mark Wheelis is senior lecturer in Microbiology at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 1. Introduction
Chapter 2 2. Nonconsensual Manipulation of Human Physiology Using Biochemicals
Chapter 3 3. Drug Development in the Twenty First Century and the Role of New Biotechnologies
Chapter 4 4. Historical Military Interest in Low-lethality Biochemical Agents: Avoiding and Augmenting Lethal Force
Chapter 5 5. Late and Post-Cold War Research and Development of Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons
Chapter 6 6. Current and Prospective Military and Law Enforcement Use of Chemical Agents for Incapacitation
Chapter 7 7. Scientific Outlook for the Development of Incapacitants
Chapter 8 8. Potential Long-term Physiological Consequences of Exposure to Incapacitating Biochemicals
Chapter 9 9. Incapacitating Chemical and Biochemical Weapons and Law Enforcement Under the Chemical Weapons Convention
Chapter 10 10. Toxic Chemicals for Law Enforcement Including Domestic Riot Control Purposes Under the Chemical Weapons Convention
Chapter 11 11. Incapacitating Biochemicals and the Biological Weapons Convention
Chapter 12 12. Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons: Risks and Uncertainties
Chapter 13 13. International Law and the Regulation of Weapons
Chapter 14 14. Human Rights Law and the Use of Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons
Chapter 15 15. Protecting and Reinforcing Humanitarian Norms: The Way Forward
Chapter 16 16. Conclusion and Recommendations

Editorial Reviews

This book, with its essays by leading players in the field, provides an excellent and urgently needed analysis of incapacitating biochemical weapons. Diplomats, scientists and policy-makers in all States Parties to Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions should read this book so as to ensure the maintenance and strengthening of the conventions in the face of the very real and present danger presented by these weapons.

Graham S. Pearson

Addressing a topic that is both urgent and complex, this book provides a comprehensive, current, and remarkably readable exposition of the potential benefits and dangers of the ongoing biochemical revolution. Combining the disciplines of medicine, science, history, law, military strategy, and arms control, the diverse authors contribute a broad-gauged guide to intensely controversial issues, rendering them accessible to the non-specialist and informative to the policy-maker.

David A. Koplow