Bio Warfare in 21st Century [Hardcover]

Malcolm Dando (Author), Dando (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1994

The discovery that Iraq had an offensive biological weapons programme prior to the 1991 Gulf War, and that the Soviet Union had continued its work on such weapons throughout the 1980s has provoked widespread public concern over these weapons of mass destruction. Official concern amongst Western states, for example, over the anthrax outbreak at Sverdlovsk, has been of long standing, and recent US statements have indicated that at least five and perhaps eight states have such weapons. It is also now known that during and after World War II, Britain, the US and Japan had major offensive biological weapons programmes. The problem of controlling the further proliferation of bioligical weapons is compounded by the weakness of the Biological Weapons Convention, and the revolution curently underway in biotechnology. This book attempts to provide the basis for an assessment of whether biological weapons, and the possibility of biological warfare, will be of increasing importance. The book reviews past biological weapons programmes and the implications of the growth of biotechnology. It outlines the origins and development of the Biological Weapons Convention, including the current attempts to determine if a verification system is possible. Finally, the problem of the control of biological weapons is set in the general context of the control of proliferation of advanced weaponry in the post-Cold War era. Malcolm Dando is the co-author (with Paul Rogers) of "A Violent Peace: Global Security after the Cold War".

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Brassey's UK; 1st English ed edition (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857530640
• ISBN-13: 978-1857530643
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,111,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommended reading by nervegas.com, September 29, 2002

By 

Reid Kirby (St. Charles, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bio Warfare in 21st Century (Hardcover)

Malcom Dando writes a clear review of public assertions fo the impact of BW (UN, SIPRI, etc.); then augments this with a review of military literature, some remarkably considered still classified by the proponent.

The author presents different biotech methods and research endeavors to display potential pathways of acquiring BW agents. Finally the book resolves this with a discussion of verification approaches.

The author succeeds in most places, but fails in one critical area - a military comprehension of BW. As the author is a biologist that has focused his attentions towards disarment issues - this is not unexpected, and common with the much of the disarment-based CBW literature. Thus there is some bluring between the lines of public health diseases and technologies, and those of peculiar interest to military endeavors.

For a person not familiar with past BW activities, and biotechnologies, and disarmament efforts, this would make a good primer - the authors intent being reasonably achieved.