Yes / Negotiations to find a legally binding way to strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) of 1972 [1]are in danger of failing. The crisis was precipitated during the current round of talks, now in its final week in Geneva, when the US, alone amongst the negotiating States, rejected the text of a protocol that has taken six and a half years to negotiate.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Brad Naegle. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-72). Also available online.

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.

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The detection and destruction of Time-Critical Targets (TCTs) has been a challenge for our military. NAVAIR has investigated a future timecritical strike (TCS) architecture and concept of operations (CONOPS) in order to explore the effectiveness of high-speed weapons against TCTs. NAVAIR has implemented a architecture and CONOPS in a simulation model. This thesis extends NAVAIR's work by developing flexible models and exploring the effects that alternative CONOPS may have on high-speed weapon requirements and system performance against TCTs. The TCTs are a single wave of theater ballistic missile (TBM) transporter-erectorlaunchers (TELs) that appear over a short time interval and can saturate the command and control architectures considered. For the architecture and alternative CONOPS explored, it is difficult to improve upon the performance of the baseline TCS system developed by NAVAIR.

This thesis will investigate the feasibility of developing nationsâ ability to create a wholly indigenous advanced arms industry in the 21st century using China and India as case studies. I propose it is not possible for developing nations in the current context of the globalized arms race to build an advanced arms industry because of the high political and economic costs. Diverse competing interests force politicians to make decisions about distribution and usage of resources that will maintain their legitimacy. The hypothesis does not rule out that some domestic advancements may be made in certain sectors, such as nuclear bombs and missiles, because resources may be spent on narrowly defined goals instead of the development of the whole industry. Nor does it rule out that a developing nation cannot have a modern military with advanced weaponry, just that the weapons will not all be wholly domestic. They will obtain advanced weapons through joint development, purchasing, or licensing. Political and economic cost will explain the failure of a wholly indigenous advanced arms industry to fully develop, as well as illustrate the few successes within certain sectors of the industry.

The North Korean nuclear weapons program poses a challenge to stability in Northeast Asia. The United States' foreign policy with North Korea takes a hard-line position, and cannot solve this problem unilaterally and must rely on support from the other countries in the region. Solving this nuclear issue is only one piece of the stability challenge in this region. North Korea's nuclear program gained international attention when it signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1985, threatened to withdraw in 1993, withdrew in 2003, and stated it has a nuclear weapons capability in 2005. The Six-Party Talks were initiated with the goal of stopping and dismantling North Korea's entire nuclear weapons program, and has had limited success. Previous negotiations between North Korea and the United States have ended with one party, usually North Korea, failing to uphold its part of the agreement. The Six-Party Talks may be successful, but may take decades. It comes down to the question, is the United States pursuing the best foreign policy toward North Korea? This thesis examines North Korea's nuclear program history, how it perceives itself and others, reviews the current U.S. policy, recommends a flexible policy, and proposes a method of implementation. / US Army (USA) author.

This thesis examines two examples of strategic deception campaigns - interwar Germany and modern Iraq - to determine the necessity for a clear framework, to decide how deception campaigns might meet overall national strategic goals. With the mindset of a pending overhaul in the way that the Department of Defense conducts business, understanding the importance of deception will become increasingly vital as the military becomes lighter and leaner. With such a change in the makeup of the force, old conventions of warfare, requiring a numerical advantage, may have to be forsaken in favor of techniques traditionally considered unconventional. By developing such a doctrine now, the challenge can be met before it actually arises. The key to doing so is examining past successes and failures and learning from history's mistakes. Using the DoD framework as a basis, it is possible to use the analysis of these case studies to develop a planning method to mitigate many of the hurdles experienced in these campaigns, from planning and execution to termination. / US Air Force (USAF) author.