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The Chemical Weapons Convention: Implementation, Challenges And Opportunities

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The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. It is the last of three conventions or treaties that propose to control weapons of mass destruction (WMD), with the first two intended to control nuclear and biological weapons.

The CWC, being the last of these agreements to go into effect is probably the best written, most strongly enforced of the agreements. It is the only one with on site inspection capability built into the treaty. It became open for signature in 1993 and entered in force on April 29, 1997.

The overwhelming number of nations in the world have signed and ratified the convention. Some dozen states have signed but not yet ratified, i.e. Bahamas, Djibouti, Haiti, etc. Ten states have neither signed or agreed. Some of these: Vanuatu, Barbados, have no chemical industry to speak of and are immaterial. Some of the others: North Korea, Syria are very serious problems.

This book is written by a series of authors that are specialists in various aspects of the convention and present a report on the current state of the treaty.