Syrian Chemical Weapons and International Law

Syrian Chemical Weapons and International Law PDF Author: Tatsuya Abe
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819937000
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
This is the first book to focus on international efforts to address Syrian chemical weapons issues in an international law context. It provides an overview of the process of control over Syrian compliance/non-compliance with international obligations, including the keys to success in eliminating Syria’s stockpiles and reasons for difficulties in handling multiple uses of toxic chemicals as weapons in domestic armed conflicts. It also addresses collective and unilateral sanctions against Syria outside of international institutional frameworks, and their implications for subsequent cases. Supported by extensive analyses of developments within the OPCW Executive Council and the UN Security Council, this book is recommended for readers seeking insight about chemical weapons issues and dynamism of international law.

One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences

One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences PDF Author: Bretislav Friedrich
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319516647
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. On April 22, 1915, the German military released 150 tons of chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium. Carried by a long-awaited wind, the chlorine cloud passed within a few minutes through the British and French trenches, leaving behind at least 1,000 dead and 4,000 injured. This chemical attack, which amounted to the first use of a weapon of mass destruction, marks a turning point in world history. The preparation as well as the execution of the gas attack was orchestrated by Fritz Haber, the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. During World War I, Haber transformed his research institute into a center for the development of chemical weapons (and of the means of protection against them). Bretislav Friedrich and Martin Wolf (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the successor institution of Haber’s institute) together with Dieter Hoffmann, Jürgen Renn, and Florian Schmaltz (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) organized an international symposium to commemorate the centenary of the infamous chemical attack. The symposium examined crucial facets of chemical warfare from the first research on and deployment of chemical weapons in WWI to the development and use of chemical warfare during the century hence. The focus was on scientific, ethical, legal, and political issues of chemical weapons research and deployment — including the issue of dual use — as well as the ongoing effort to control the possession of chemical weapons and to ultimately achieve their elimination. The volume consists of papers presented at the symposium and supplemented by additional articles that together cover key aspects of chemical warfare from 22 April 1915 until the summer of 2015.

The Chemical Weapons Taboo

The Chemical Weapons Taboo PDF Author: Richard MacKay Price
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801433061
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Richard M. Price asks why, among all the ominous technologies of weaponry throughout the history of warfare, chemical weapons carry a special moral stigma. Something more seems to be at work than the predictable resistance people have expressed to any new weaponry, from the crossbow to nuclear bombs. Perceptions of chemical warfare as particularly abhorrent have been successfully institutionalized in international proscriptions and, Price suggests, understanding the sources of this success might shed light on other efforts at arms control.To explore the origins and meaning of the chemical weapons taboo, Price presents a series of case studies from World War I through the Gulf War of 1990-1991. He traces the moral arguments against gas warfare from the Hague Conferences at the turn of the century through negotiations for the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. From the Italian invasion of Ethiopia to the war between Iran and Iraq, chemical weapons have been condemned as the "poor man's bomb." Drawing upon insights from Michel Foucault to explain the role of moral norms in an international arena rarely sensitive to such pressures, he focuses on the construction of and mutations in the refusal to condone chemical weapons.

Countering the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria

Countering the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria PDF Author: Una Becker-Jakob
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chemical warfare
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
Chemical weapons are banned by international law. Nonetheless, there have been numerous alleged and proven chemical attacks during the Syrian civil war. The international community has found ways to address this problem, but it has not managed to exclude the possibility of further chemical attacks once and for all. Nor has it created accountability for the perpetrators. The establishment in 2018 of the Investigation and Identification Team within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is a step in the right direction, but it came at the price of increased polarization among member states. To maintain the OPCW’s effectiveness, move closer to accountability and uphold the international norm on the non-use of chemical weapons, the European Union and its member states should consider short- and longer-term steps, such as emphasizing the norm’s viability over potential threats, pressing the United Nations General Assembly to employ the Uniting for Peace principle, enhancing national criminal investigations or adopting universal jurisdiction pending the possibility of international legal prosecution for chemical weapon use, and supporting the OPCW and its ad hoc mechanisms in every possible way.

The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict

The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict PDF Author: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199300984
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 673

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Book Description
The authors focus on the multidimensionality of gender in conflict, yet they also prioritise the experience of women given both the changing nature of war and the historical de-emphasis on women's experiences.

Arms Control Law

Arms Control Law PDF Author: Daniel H. Joyner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780754629535
Category : Arms control
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This volume features a selection of the best scholarship on international law as it is relevant to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The essays consider the nonproliferation legal regime as a normative system and offer a more discrete consideration of international law in each weapons of mass destruction technology area. The role, authority and track record of the UN Security Council in this area are also evaluated.

The Syrian Conflict's Impact on International Law

The Syrian Conflict's Impact on International Law PDF Author: Michael P. Scharf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108870554
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Written as the decade-long Syria conflict nears an end, this is the first book-length treatment of how the Syrian war has changed international law. In The Syrian Conflict's Impact on International Law, the authors explain the history of the current conflict in Syria and discuss the principles and process of customary international law formation and the phenomenon of accelerated formation of customary international law known as Grotian Moments. They then explore specific examples, including how use of force against ISIS in Syria has changed the law of self-defense against non-state actors, how the allied airstrikes in response to Syria's use of chemical weapons have changed the law of humanitarian intervention, and others. This book seeks to contribute both to understanding the concept of accelerated formation of customary international law and the specific ways the Syria conflict has led to development of new norms and principles in several areas of international law.

Syria and the chemical weapons taboo

Syria and the chemical weapons taboo PDF Author: Michelle Bentley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526104741
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
This book analyses the Syria crisis and the role of chemical weapons in relation to US foreign policy. The Syrian government's use of such weapons and their subsequent elimination has dominated the US response to the conflict, where these are viewed as particularly horrific arms - a repulsion known as the chemical taboo. On the surface, this would seem to be an appropriate reaction: these are nasty weapons and eradicating them would ostensibly comprise a 'good' move. But this book reveals two new aspects of the taboo that challenge this prevailing view. First, actors use the taboo strategically to advance their own self-interested policy objectives. Second, that applying the taboo to Syria has actually exacerbated the crisis. As such, this book not only provides a timely analysis of Syria, but also a major and original rethink of the chemical taboo, as well as international norms more widely.

The Chemical Weapons Convention

The Chemical Weapons Convention PDF Author: Walter Krutzsch
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191650358
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 763

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Book Description
This book provides an article-by-article commentary on the text of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and its Annexes, one of the cornerstone disarmament and arms control agreements. It requires the verified elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction and their means of production by all its States Parties within established time lines, and that prohibits any activities to develop or otherwise acquire such weapons. Cross-cutting chapters alongside the detailed commentary, by those intimately involved in the development of the Convention, assess the history of the efforts to prohibit chemical weapons, the adoption of the Convention and the work of the Preparatory Commission, the entry into force of the Convention to the Second Review Conference, and the need for a new approach for the governance of chemical weapons. Written by those involved in its creation and implementation, this book critically reviews the practices adopted in implementing the Convention, as well as the challenges ahead, and provides legal commentary on, and guidance for, its future role. It assesses how to adapt its implementation to advances in science and technology, including the discovery of new chemicals and the development of biochemical 'non-lethal' compounds that influence behaviour. It addresses the legal framework within which the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) takes decisions, both with regard to the OPCW's own regulatory framework and regarding wider international norms, accepted principles, and practices. The Commentary draws conclusions on how the prohibitions against chemical weapons can be strengthened and the stature of the OPCW protected. It highlights the involvement of industry and academia in this prohibition, creating a symbiosis between effective governance and the legal framework of the Convention. This book is an authoritative, scholarly work for anyone interested in the Chemical Weapons Convention, in international disarmament and arms control law, and in the work of international organizations, and a practical guide for individuals and institutions involved in the Convention's day-to-day implementation.

Red Line

Red Line PDF Author: Joby Warrick
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385544472
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In Red Line, Joby Warrick, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Black Flags, shares the thrilling unknown story of America’s mission in Syria: to find and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons and keep them out of the hands of the Islamic State. In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. When secret intelligence revealed that the dictator might resort to using chemical weapons, President Obama warned that doing so would cross “a red line.” Assad did it anyway, bombing the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds of civilians, and forcing Obama to decide if he would mire America in another unpopular war in the Middle East. When Russia offered to broker the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, Obama leapt at the out. So began an electrifying race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the midst of a raging civil war. The extraordinary little-known effort is a triumph for the Americans, but soon Russia’s long game becomes clear: it will do anything to preserve Assad’s rule. As America’s ability to control events in Syria shrinks, the White House learns that ISIS, building its caliphate in Syria’s war-tossed territory, is seeking chemical weapons for itself, with an eye to attack the West. Drawing on astonishing original reporting, Warrick crafts a character-driven narrative that reveals how the United States embarked on a bold adventure to prevent one catastrophe but could not avoid a tragic chain of events that led to another.