Preserving the norm against chemical weapons: A civil society initiative for the 2018 4th review conference of the chemical weapons convention
Publication date
2018-09Rights
© 2018 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.Peer-Reviewed
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Acceleration of the applications of cutting edge science is often most likely in situations involving conflict and warfare between different groups. That is the focus of this paper. It asks what we know of the past, present and possible future applications of advances in our understanding of the brain in the development of chemical weapons, and what might best be done to moderate the most dangerous aspects of that process at the present time, particularly by members of civil society. The paper therefore begins by examining this possibility of hostile manipulation of the brain in some detail. It then briefly reviews the current state of the chemical and biological arms control and disarmament regime as embodied in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) following the 2016 8th Five Year Review Conference of the BTWC and in the lead up to the 2018 4th Five Year Review Conference of the CWC. Finally, our civil society initiative to assist in achieving a successful outcome of the 2018 CWC Review Conference is described. This initiative involves the production of a multi-authored edited book, to be published in advance of the Review Conference by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry that explores many of the critical issues facing the CWC States Parties as they seek to agree effective measures to prevent the development and use of chemical weapons, as the life and chemical sciences advance.Version
Accepted manuscriptCitation
Crowley M, Shang L and Dando M (2018) Preserving the norm against chemical weapons: A civil society initiative for the 2018 4th review conference of the chemical weapons convention. Futures. 102: 125-133.Link to publisher’s version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.01.006Type
ArticleNotes
The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 16 March 2020.Collections
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