Science, Technology and the CW Prohibition Regime

This chapter will analyse the chemical weapons (CW) prohibition regime with a view to the impact that technological characteristics of and developments related to toxic chemicals as well as developments concerning chemical processes have on the control efforts by states parties to the regime. The analysis starts from the hypothesis that recent developments in modern biotechnology, especially the utilization of combinatorial chemistry in for example the pharmaceutical industries of developed countries pose a risk to the international regime set up for prohibiting chemical warfare agents. In order to prevent the CW prohibition regime from being undermined by these — and other — recent developments, a rethinking is needed of the interrelation between the scientific and technological basis of the issue area and the political-legal regime structure brought in place to control the dangers emanating from known chemical warfare agents and other toxic chemicals and biochemicals that could be misused for warfare or terrorist attacks.