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Thesis advisor: Jennifer Erickson / The use of chemical agents in attacks in Syria, England, and Malaysia in the past several years have raised questions about the efficacy of international efforts, specifically the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to prohibit the use of chemical weapons. These attacks highlight that even after the CWC’s entry into force, there is still more progress to be made towards the complete elimination of chemical weapons. Understanding the factors that influence a state’s decision to comply or not comply with the CWC is essential for moving forward with future disarmament efforts. Using case studies, this thesis examines issues of compliance and noncompliance regarding states’ chemical weapons programs and their ability to implement and enforce the CWC on a national level. The resulting analysis indicates that domestic and external pressures have a strong influence on states that comply with the CWC. The availability of resources, the presence of threats to security, and domestic norms are the most influential factors among states that do not comply with the CWC. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program. / Discipline: Chemistry.

Yes / The Ad Hoc Group (AHG) of the States Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) have touched from time to time on the question of the organisation needed to implement the legally binding instrument being negotiated to strengthen the BTWC. Now that the work of the AHG has intensified with the fleshing out of a rolling text for the legally binding instrument, the nature of the organisation is receiving more and more attention as its size and cost are likely to influence the nature and effectiveness of the regime developed by the AHG. This Briefing Paper considers what can be learned from existing relevant organisations, notably the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its counterparts for animal and plant diseases (OIE and FAO), the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraq and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The developments thus far in the AHG deliberations are then addressed and some estimates are made for the optimum size and cost of a BTWC rganisation. It is emphasised that these estimates are necessarily broad as the actual size of the BTWC Organization will depend on the precise functions and responsibilities that it is given.

Yes / The Ad Hoc Group (AHG) of the States Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) has the consideration of measures to implement Article X of the Convention as an element of its mandate agreed by the Special Conference in September 1994. The AHG has considered how to address this at each of its substantive meetings with a Friend of the Chair, initially Ambassador Jorge Berguno of Chile and subsequently, Carlos Duarte of Brazil carrying out this responsibility. As progress is being made on the development of the rolling text for the Protocol to strengthen the Convention, it is timely to consider how the implementation of Article X might contribute to the strengthening of the effectiveness of the Convention. Briefing Paper No 6 considered some of the developments that have occurred nationally, regionally and internationally in respect of the use of bacteriological (biological) agents and toxins for peaceful purposes. It noted that there is increasing awareness world-wide because of public health and environmental concerns of the need to control the handling, use, storage and transfer of such biological agents. That paper examined some of the current controls and regulations for biosafety and the international initiatives that are ongoing to strengthen biosafety around the world. These were seen as building blocks which might be considered from a point of view of strengthening the BTWC as well as contributing to the implementation of Article X although care will need to be taken in the Protocol for the AHG to avoid unnecessary duplication with other international activities. This Briefing Paper is complementary to Briefing Paper No 6 as it considers the national regulations in the UK, the EEC and in the United States as well as some other countries in respect of micro-organisms with the aim of providing some further building blocks to be considered in the strengthening of the BTWC and the implementation of Article X of the Convention. The challenging goal continues to be to identify how these other national, regional and international activities can be utilised to contribute to the strengthening of the BTWC.

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