Preventing biological warfare. (Forum).

The Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, was created in response to initiatives taken by members of the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers) to form a British peace studies center similar to centers in Scandinavia and North America. The prevention of biological warfare through the strengthening of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) is one of the department's main research projects.

Located on the Internet at http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/sbtwc/, the department's BTWC Web site is a primary source of information on the convention, which was first negotiated in the early 1970s, and the protocol being developed to make the convention a more potent and timely defense against the proliferation of biological weapons.

Links to the site's most recently added documents and videos are listed on the home page. The Convention (Ratifications and Signatories) link leads to the texts of all the major agreements leading up to the convention, going as far back as the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Under the Current Protocol Text link are procedural reports and working papers from each round of negotiations.

Evaluation papers written by project researchers offer detailed insights into the routine workings of the protocol negotiation conferences and examine developments in the negotiation process. "Evaluation Paper No. 22, The US Rejection of the Composite Protocol: A Huge Mistake Based on Illogical Assessments" discusses the July 2001 decision by the U.S. government to not support the protocol and urges the United States to reconsider its position. The paper also provides background on the U.S. political stance on biological and chemical weapons. Other accessible protocol documents include briefing papers prepared for conference delegates and papers from conferences held periodically to review the operation of the convention.

The Information about Biological Weapons and the BTWC page contains links to articles and speeches by department experts, video lectures on the BTWC protocol negotiations, and information on related programs carried out by the department.