The Politics of Biological Disarmament - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 305

ence of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD) between those states fa-
voring the continued consideration of chemical and biological weapons
in a single convention and those, like the UK, that argued for the separa-
tion of the two. Ultimately the Soviet draft led to the BWC. Forrest Rus-
sell Frank, in his 1974 doctoral dissertation, focused on US policy regard-
ing the BWC. He conducted interviews with more than 300 participants
in the negotiations within the US government and between the US and
other nations, but he did not have access to information that has since
been declassified. 2 Elisa Harris, more than a decade later, also focused on
the US with a retrospective analysis of how the BWC lived up to its ex-
pectations. 3
This chapter has the advantage of being able to rely on internal govern-
ment documents in the UK and US archives, many of which have been
recently declassified, as well as the official diplomatic record, which has
long been available. The declassified documents from the US and UK gov-
ernments have given researchers access to internal government discus-
sions of the disarmament processes in these countries and the discussions
of national priorities that shaped the language of the BWC. A thorough
analysis of the positions of all the countries contributing to the way in
which the Convention took form is beyond the scope of this chapter. Two
reasons for focusing on UK and US government documents are that the
UK Draft Convention of July 1969 formed the basis for all subsequent
drafts, and that the US association with the Soviet Draft Convention of
March 1971 provided the opportunity for agreement between the super-
powers. The chapter thus builds on but does not repeat the work of other
scholars who have explored the same sources. 4
The Background of Biological Disarmament
The control of biological (and chemical) weapons has a long history both
before and after the extensive use of CW in World War I. 5 In Chapter
16 Nicholas Sims discusses the role of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. After
World War II the topic of general and complete disarmament was taken
up by the newly founded United Nations. Throughout the postwar period
the Cold War dominated the political agenda, and nuclear weapons dom-
inated the arms control and disarmament agenda. General and complete
disarmament and control of weapons other than nuclear weapons were