The Politics of Biological Disarmament - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 325

Convention. Earlier discussions of the UK draft within the US govern-
ment sought to clarify that research on measures to defend against BW
would still be permissible under the treaty. Nevertheless, the idea of ban-
ning offensive research seemed to die a quiet death.
A confidential paper prepared for Kissinger in September 1971 de-
scribed in detail, article by article, and commented upon all the proposed
changes to the UK and Soviet drafts that led to a joint US-Soviet Draft in
September 1971. Many of the changes had been made in response to re-
quests by the nonaligned nations. Other proposals by the nonaligned
were noted as unacceptable. The article affirming the objective of ef-
fective prohibition of CW was described as “the most difficult to nego-
tiate.” 69
The Politics of Implementation
The final agreed-upon text of the BWC left a number of parties dissatis-
fied. France, for instance, did not become an original party to the treaty
because it lacked effective verification. A few years later, in 1979, an out-
break of anthrax in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk (see Chapter 13) high-
lighted the Convention's lack of on-site measures to address allegations of
noncompliance. At the First Review Conference, in 1980, on the basis of
the Sverdlovsk outbreak the US alleged Soviet violation of the treaty.
At each review conference the parties have sought to strengthen the
ability of States Parties to verify and increase confidence in other states'
compliance. At the First Review Conference a group of states led by Swe-
den attempted, unsuccessfully, to amend Articles V and VI of the Con-
vention. They proposed that a Consultative Committee be established to
conduct fact-finding, with on-site inspections as one of the tools at its dis-
posal. Soviet opposition to amending the Convention at a review confer-
ence killed the Swedish proposal. 70 Commenting on the effect of the
Sverdlovsk incident on the First Review Conference, Julian Perry Robin-
son observed:
The Sverdlovsk allegation very much affected the content of the Final
Declaration on the thorny issue of the Consultative Committee. On the
one hand it illustrated most graphically the need for some form of inter-
national verification procedure. On the other hand it suggested that the