05 Feb, 2009 · PR Chari and Arpit Rajain (Ed.)
PR Chari and Arpit Rajain (Ed.)
New Delhi: India Research Press, 2003 Read More
About the Book
The States Parties had been negotiating a Verification Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention BTWC in Geneva for much of the last decade to balance the needs of international security with national sovereignty, and transparency against commercial secrecy. There was also the conundrum of accommodating advances in biotechnology due to genetic engineering and emerging technologies within the BTWC. At this critical juncture when the need for a verification protocol was the greatest, the United States scuttled these negotiations leading to their being suspended, without a clear vision of what alternative arrangements might be emplaced. The United States wishes these negotiations to be postponed till 2006.
The essays in this volume address issues like anxieties in the biotech industry that a verification regime would compromise secrecy, whether the verification arrangements in the Chemical Weapons Convention could be extended to the BTWC, and the imperative for states to enact domestic legislation for implementing the BTWC. Two essays explore the future dangers of bioterrorism, the threat posed by biological weapons, and the defence possible against them. The likely endgame in Geneva is speculated upon in one essay. Two case studies have also been added to this volume dealing with the plague epidemics in Surat (1994) and Himachal Pradesh (2002), and the anthrax mail attacks in the United States following 9/11.
Table of Contents
1. CWC and BTWC: Lessons from the Verification Process
Arpit Rajain
2. BWC State Implementation: National Legislation to Deal with the Situation - Can They Substitute the Protocol?
G. Balachandran
3. Compulsions of the Biotech Industry/Reservations Regarding the BTWC Protocol and Suggested Solutions
Sandhya Tewari and Divya Chopra
4. Endgame in November 2002 /US Position - Other Alternative Modalities to Protocol
Kalpana Chittaranjan
5. India's Position on the BTWC and its Verification Protocol
PR Chari and Arpit Rajain
6. Threat Analysis of Danger from Biological Weapons and Biodefence Measures
Maj. Gen. Ashok Krishna, AVSM (Retd.)
7. Bioterrorism and the Future
PR Chari
8. The Anthrax Scare
Vivek Shankar Mathur and Arpit Rajain
9. Plague Outbreaks in India: Surat and Himachal Pradesh
Animesh Roul
10. Seminar Report of the IPCS Conference on Biological Weapons
Divya Srivastava
About the Editors
PR Chari is former member of the Indian Administrative Services, has held several important positions including Additional Secretary, Ministry off Defence and Director, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. He was International Fellow, Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University, and is currently Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS). He has worked extensively on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and Indian defence issues and is the author of many distinguished publications.
Arpit Rajain was a Research Officer in the institute of Peace and Conflict Studies since 1997 on WMD issues. He has co-edited Working Towards a Verification Protocol for Biological Weapons, and co-edited Biological Weapons: Issues and Threats.
New Delhi: India Research Press, 2003
PR Chari and Arpit Rajain (Ed.)
New Delhi: India Research Press, 2003 Read More
