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Preventing the re-emergence of chemical weapons

Bezeichnung Wert
Titel
Preventing the re-emergence of chemical weapons
Untertitel
Part 1: the evolution of chemical weapon use since 1990
Verfasserangabe
Jean Pascal Zanders
Medienart
Sprache
Person
Reihe
Reihenvermerk
3
Verlag
ISS
Ort
Paris
Jahr
Umfang
8 p.
Annotation
ntroduction

Since the Third Review Conference (8-19 April 2013), the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the body overseeing the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), has had to confront growing evidence of chemical warfare in the Syrian civil war. Syria became a party to the CWC in October 2013, but investigators have repeatedly confirmed chemical weapon (CW) use by government forces and some chemical attacks by non-state actors. In March 2018, an assassination attempt with an uncommon nerve agent in the United Kingdom, for which the British government accuses Russia, poses a completely different challenge to the CWC’s future. These issues in combination with deteriorating international security cooperation have fractured consensus among states parties.

On 21-30 November 2018, the OPCW met for its Fourth Review Conference. Normally held every five years, review conferences assess the general health of the agreement, examine the status of execution of obligations on both the international and national levels, and lay out future policy directions and priorities. This time, a two-day regular session of the annual Conference of States Parties preceded the Review Conference (19–20 November) to adopt the work programme and budget for 2019. The Fourth Review Conference failed because deep divisions over how to address the various allegations of CW use precluded consensus decision-making.

This Brief is the first of a triptych on the ways the international community has responded to the new developments to preserve and strengthen the norm against CW use. It first offers a short historical overview of chemical warfare, followed by a review of resurgent use of toxic agents. It next introduces the CWC. A discussion of the challenges the new-found utility of such agents pose to the convention concludes the Brief. Part 2 of the triptych investigates the international responses to CW use over the past five years and the controversies they have spawned. Part 3 focuses on EU responses to violations of the norm against poison weapons and the roles played by EU sanctions in particular.
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