A Short History of Biological Warfare: From Pre-History to the 21st Century; Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction Occasional Paper, No. 12
Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 2017. First Printing [Stated]. Wraps. [6], 69, [1] pages. Additional Reading. Definitions and Methodology. Notes. Dr. W. Seth Carus is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University. His research focuses on issues related to biological warfare, including threat assessment, biodefense, and the role of the Department of Defense in responding to biological agent use. He also studies allegations of biological agent use and has written a paper, Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents in the 20th Century, and several articles on that subject. He has been at NDU since 1997. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Carus was detailed to the Office of the Vice President, where he was the Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Biodefense. Before assuming that position, he was on the staff of the National Preparedness Review commissioned to recommend changes in homeland security organization and supported the Office of Homeland Security while it was being established. Prior to joining NDU, Dr. Carus was a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses. He worked on studies related to the impact of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons on the conduct of a major regional contingency in Korea. From 1991 to 1994, Dr. Carus was a member of the Policy Planning staff in the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense. Dr. Carus has a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. This short monograph reviews the history of biological warfare (BW) from prehistory to the present. It covers what we know about the practice of BW and briefly describes the programs that developed BW weapons based on the best available research. It primarily draws on the work of historians who used primary sources, relying where possible on studies specifically focused on BW. By broadening our knowledge of BW, such studies have enabled us to write about the topic with more accuracy and detail than could have been done even a few years ago. This is an overview. Much about BW remains unknown, either because it is unknowable or because it is knowable only to some people (such as those who have access to classified information). This survey breaks the history of BW into three periods. The first section examines prehistory to 1900—the period before scientific advances proved that microorganisms were the cause of many diseases. Despite many claims to the contrary, resort to BW was exceedingly rare during this era. The second section looks at the years from 1900 through 1945. This period saw the emergence of state BW programs, the employment of biological weapons in both world wars, and the use of biological agents by nonstate actors. This period witnessed the most significant resort to BW. It included the first organized state campaign to wage BW—sabotage operations organized by the German government during World War I. It also saw the most extensive use—the Japanese attacks in China. Almost all the known victims of BW were Chinese, mostly civilians, who were killed in these operations. This period also saw the initial efforts to control BW in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which essentially prohibited the first use of BW agents. Finally, the third section, covering the period from 1945 to the present, focuses mostly on developments during the Cold War, including descriptions of state BW programs as well as known uses of biological agents by states, terrorists, and criminals. Despite the development of highly sophisticated techniques for dissemination of biological agents by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, most of the known programs were small and possessed only crude dissemination capabilities. This era also saw the negotiation of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC). This history focuses on those agents covered by the BWC, which prohibited weapons disseminating biological agents or toxins. Biological agents are replicating biological entities, such as bacteria. Toxins, poisons of biological origin, are similar to chemical warfare agents and also have been banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Definitional matters are discussed in more detail in appendix 2. Biological agents are referred to by their scientific name. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Biological Warfare, BW, BWC, Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, Biological Agents, Anthrax, Microorganism, 1925 Geneva Protocol, Chemical Weapons Convention, Biodefense, Bioterrorism, Biocrimes
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