Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons

Promise or Peril?

Alan Pearson editor Marie Chevrier editor Mark Wheelis editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:6th Nov '07

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in another edition too:

Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons cover

Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons examines the promise and peril behind weapons based on natural or synthetic biochemical compounds that are meant to cause rapid incapacitation but not to kill. An agent has yet to be found that can effectively incapacitate people without risk of death when used in a real-world military or law enforcement situation. But revolutionary advances in the life sciences and biotechnology are generating new knowledge and potentially greater capabilities for manipulating human consciousness, emotions, mental functions, and behavior. These advances, coupled with the changing nature of conflict and warfare in the 21st century, are generating renewed government interest in incapacitating biochemical weapons. Governments, international organizations, and society as a whole have critical decisions to make about whether and how to pursue the development, or conversely the effective prohibition, of incapacitating biochemical weapons. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the scientific, military, humanitarian, legal, and political issues associated with the development and use of incapacitating biochemical weapons. The expert contributing authors explore a wide range of issues pertinent to the topic from science to history to current military interest, arms control, and international law.Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons: Promise or Peril? will be of interest to scientists, the military and law enforcement communities, policy-makers, and all who are concerned about the proliferation of such weapons.

This book, with its essays by leading players in the field, provides an excellent and urgently needed analysis of incapacitating biochemical weapons. Diplomats, scientists and policy-makers in all States Parties to Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions should read this book so as to ensure the maintenance and strengthening of the conventions in the face of the very real and present danger presented by these weapons. -- Graham S. Pearson, Visiting Professor of International Security, University of Bradford, UK and previously Director-General, Chemical and Biologica
Addressing a topic that is both urgent and complex, this book provides a comprehensive, current, and remarkably readable exposition of the potential benefits and dangers of the ongoing biochemical revolution. Combining the disciplines of medicine, science, history, law, military strategy, and arms control, the diverse authors contribute a broad-gauged guide to intensely controversial issues, rendering them accessible to the non-specialist and informative to the policy-maker. -- David A. Koplow, Georgetown University Law Center

ISBN: 9780739114391

Dimensions: 228mm x 154mm x 26mm

Weight: 494g

338 pages