Forging an Effective Biological Weapons Regime

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In September, signatories to the 22-year-old Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) will gather in Geneva to carefully study scientific and technical evaluations of measures by a panel of international governmental experts that are designed to strengthen the convention's implementation and verification regime. Before that meeting, it is timely to examine these evaluations and the goals and underlying approach of proposed measures to strengthen the BWC in the context of the threat posed by such weapons and earlier efforts to establish an effective regime.

During the past five years, the breakup of the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact has resulted in a shift from …