The chemical weapons convention : strategic implications for the United States
Abstract : On January 13, 1993, in Paris, 130 countries signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to ban the entire class of Chemical Weapons. Debate continues on the strategic implications of the Convention, as drafted, and whether it is in the U.S. national security interest. This paper explores the historical, moral, and legal aspects of chemical warfare, and the strategic implications of the Convention, including operational, policy, constitutional, and industry impact for the U.S. This paper concludes that, although 'imperfect,' the Convention represents a significant contribution to U.S. security objectives, and serves the national interest.
Countering the Proliferation of Chemical Weapons
Abstract : For more than a decade, the U.S. government has been grappling with the question of chemical-weapon proliferation along with the associated problems of missile and nuclear-weapon proliferation. The Ceneva Protocol of 1925 banned the first use but not the production, transfer, or storage of chemical weapons. The extensive chemical-weapon arsenal of the former Soviet Union was the primary chemical-weapon threat to the United States fron the start of the Cold War in the early 1950s, and thus drove U.S. chemical-weapon policy. The United States finally ratified the Geneva Protocol in 1975. Iraq's use of chemical weapons in its war with Iran in the 1980s stimulated the United states to improve its export controls of chemicals used to make chemical weapons. With the demise of the Soviet Union as a military threat to the United states and its European allies, and Russia's willingness to honor the 1990 U.S.-Soviet agreement to destroy their respective chemical-weapon stockpiles, U.S. policy focused on the proliferation and use of chemical weapons among third-world rations, particularly in the Middle East. Chemical weapons have occasionally been used in violation of the Ceneva Protocol over the past decades, most extensively by Iraq in its war with Iran. In the past, however, U.S. policies for control of chemical-weapon proliferation had a lower priority than those for control of more threatening nudear weapons and balistic missiles.
Violence at Work
Part 1 Understanding violence at work: introduction - a catalyst for action patterns and trends explanations. Part 2 Responding to violence at work: legislative and regulatory interventions guidelines and best practice international action. Part 3 Future guidance: beyond violence - lessons for future action.