One of the first people to contemplate the use of biological weapons in North America was Lord Jeffrey Amherst. Amherst was the commanding general of British forces in North America during the final battles of the French and Indian War (1754–63). Carl Waldman's Atlas of the North American Indian (New York: Facts on File, 1985) describes a siege at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) by the forces…
The dangers of modern WMD are significant enough to warrant increasing global concern, especially given the large number of countries that possess some sort of WMD capabilities. While it is difficult to posit a single explanation of various nations' rationales for developing WMD capabilities, in many instances the reasons include one or more of the following: The enormous and widespread dam…
Chemical warfare agents are poisonous chemical materials used to kill or incapacitate. These agents can be delivered in a variety of ways, including canisters, artillery shells, artillery rockets, aerial bombs, mines, missile warheads, grenades, sprayers, and even released by individuals. Although the international community generally condemns the use of such weapons, several states have had or do…
Certain biological organisms and toxins have been developed as weapons that can be used against humans, livestock, and crops. Biological weapons are different from their chemical counterparts because they use living organisms or their products—viruses, bacteria, or toxins—such as ricin (which is derived from the castor bean) or mycotoxin (which is produced by fungi). Biological weapo…
Nuclear and other radiological (radioactive) weapons are some of humankind's deadliest creations. In August 1945 two atomic bombs were detonated in Japan by the United States. These bombs were a product of the top-secret Manhattan Project, which cost the U.S. government approximately $2 billion. The attack devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing about seventy thousand and f…
The illicit trafficking of nuclear and fissile material was a grave U.S. national security threat in the early and mid-1990s. In the aftermath of the Soviet breakup, the amount of this trafficking increased dramatically. Major factors contributing to this problem were political and economic crises in the newly independent states and inadequate security and inventory systems at former Soviet nuclea…
An international treaty is usually negotiated between two (bilateral) or more (multilateral) states and typically enumerates the rights and duties each party has in reference to the issue being addressed. They are usually signed by the legitimate ruling administration of a sovereign state, but signing the treaty is not usually the last step taken in its approval; it also needs to be ratified in or…
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