The Biological Weapons Convention: Securing Biology in the Twenty-first Century

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Abstract

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is often considered to be a comparatively weak regime. It lacks several components regularly used to address other unconventional weapons (such as nuclear or chemical weapons). I argue that given the peculiarities of ensuring that biology is not used as a weapon, an alternative model might be better suited to strengthen international peace and security and to serve the needs of stakeholder communities. The first section of the paper identifies a set of ten characteristics desirable in any contemporary effort to tackle the potential hostile use of biology. The second section uses these characteristics to assess the utility of traditional arms control approaches. It then discusses how the BWC differs from existing models and characterizes current efforts under the BWC as an evolved networked model. Then I argue that a comparison with the identified desirable characteristics suggests, that in the case of biological weapons at least, an evolved networked model could offer additional benefits for international peace and security. The final section of the paper then examines, at a practical level, how the evolved networked model, as developed in the context of the BWC, meets specific needs of key stakeholder communities.

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