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Overview
The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention entirely prohibits biological warfare, but it has no effective verification mechanism to ensure that the 140-plus States Parties are living up to their obligations. From 1995-2001 the States Parties attempted to negotiate a Protocol to the Convention to remedy this deficiency. On 25 July 2001 the United States entirely rejected the final text which would probably have been acceptable to most other states. The book investigates how this disaster came about, and the potential consequences of the failure of American leadership.
Synopsis
When President Nixon sent the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to the Congress for ratification, Ft. Detrick (the source of the anthrax in the 2001 domestic terrorist attacks) was supposed to be converted to a center for cancer research and the number of countries thought to have biological weapons programs was half of what it is now. Dando (peace studies, U. of Bradford, UK) traces the roots of this problem to the lack of a mechanism for compliance verification in the original treaty. He explores the reasons for this omission and subsequent attempts, recently defeated by the United States, to rectify the situation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Booknews
When President Nixon sent the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to the Congress for ratification, Ft. Detrick (the source of the anthrax in the 2001 domestic terrorist attacks) was supposed to be converted to a center for cancer research and the number of countries thought to have biological weapons programs was half of what it is now. Dando (peace studies, U. of Bradford, UK) traces the roots of this problem to the lack of a mechanism for compliance verification in the original treaty. He explores the reasons for this omission and subsequent attempts, recently defeated by the United States, to rectify the situation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)