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Inventory Control of Dual-Use Equipment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

David R. Franz*
Affiliation:
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, USA
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Extract

Proliferation of biological—as well as chemical and nuclear—weapons is a threat to the security of the U.S. in the post-Cold War era. The number of states with biological weapons (BW) programs or with a strong interest in having a BW program has increased significantly since the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed in 1972 (Office of Technology Assessment, 1993). BW programs present difficult intelligence targets. Thus, the Soviet Union was a signatory to the BWC at the time of the Sverdlovsk incident in 1979, yet we knew little of the scope of its BW program until 1991 (Meselson et al., 1994). The spread of biotechnology throughout the world in recent years has made even more governments potentially BW capable.

Type
Symposium: Biological Weapons Inspection
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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References

Ad Hoc Group of Governmental Experts to Identify and Examine Potential Verification Measures from a Scientific and Technical Standpoint (1992). “Summary of the Examination: Identification of Key Equipment (On-Site).” Second Session, Geneva, November 23-December 4.Google Scholar
Ad Hoc Group of Governmental Experts to Identify and Examine Potential Verification Measures from a Scientific and Technical Standpoint (1993). “Summary Report of the Fourth Session.” Geneva, September 13-24.Google Scholar
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