Publication

This paper 1) highlights the proposals and initiatives that have been forwarded since the late 1960s to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and 2) outlines a new approach to improve the general adherence to the treaty. The approach could involve strengthening the treaty incrementally, particularly through procedural agreements and/or politically binding commitments (instead of amendments to the BWC itself), or by adopting the author's preferred option, which would involve a small number of states grouping together to develop the tools needed to declare, document and demonstrate adherence to the BWC.