WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

INTRODUCTION:
The dangers displayed by weapons of mass destruction have come back to occupy the centre
stage in international politics. The term "weapon of mass destruction" (WMD) is used to
characterize a range of weapons that share two key features: their potential for large-scale
destruction and therefore the indiscriminate nature of their effects, notably against civilians.
There are 3 major varieties of WMD: nuclear weapons, chemical warfare agents, and
biological warfare agents. Moreover, some analysts still include imaging materials as
missile technology and delivery systems like aircraft and ballistic missiles. While the mass
killing of groups of people isn't a replacement feature of warfare, weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) create a new wave of challenges to peace and security. Over the past
century, varied states have engineered and stocked fatal arsenals of nuclear, chemical, and
biological weapons and therefore the materials to supply them. While states have formally
committed to eliminating all stocks of chemical weapons and offensive biological weapons
and an attempt to eliminate of nuclear weapons, 9 countries presently possess nuclear
weapons - United Kingdom, China, France, India, Israel (assumed), North Korea (claimed),
Pakistan, Russia, and therefore the united states - and a number of other states are believed to
possess chemical and/or biological warfare agents. In addition to the hazards displayed by
existing stocks of weapons, important issues arise from the spread (or "proliferation") of
weapons of mass destruction and connected technologies to other countries, non-
governmental actors, and non-state terrorist networks through underground programs and
contraband sales of weapons and connected technologies. Fears of the terrorist use of weapon
increased within the United States and across the world following the terrorist use of the
biological warfare agent anthrax within the U.S. mail in 2001 and proof taken by U.S. forces
in Afghanistan that Al al-Qaida was actively seeking nuclear materials. The use of weapon by
terrorists is usually viewed by security officers as a "worst case" situation and so attracts
major concern. As former Secretary of Defence William J. Perry warned at a gathering of the
National Academy of Sciences in 2004, "I have not been additional petrified of a nuclear
detonation than now there is more than 50 % chance of a nuclear strike on U.S. targets within
a decade." Linton Brooks, a high ranking security official within the Bush administration,
recently reported to Congress in March 2005 that: "The convergence of heightened terrorist
activities and therefore the associated revelations relating to the benefit of moving materials,
technology and knowledge across borders has created the potential of terrorist act involving
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) the foremost serious threat facing the nation.
Preventing weapon from falling into the hands of terrorists is that the high national security
priority of this Administration."

The research offers in-depth information on the fundamental characteristics and current
threats displayed by nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. It reviews their history,
important governmental policies and international agreements, and promising ways to cut
back the hazards of those deadly weapons. for instance, only 1 % of the present U.S. defence
budget might give enough funds to secure all the nuclear bomb material within the world,
removing it from the black marketplace for good. The research not only views such weapons
as methods of mass destruction but also brings out an idea about other ways in which people
are also used as a means of mass destruction namely, use of people as suicide bombers for
mass killings, to establish a different point of vision of weapons of mass destruction. 1

WHAT ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

The term WMD might involve all of such weapons leading to mass destruction but all such
weapons have different impacts and effects and results towards their use-

Nuclear weapons- Many people imagine these as a nightmare for themselves due to past
examples of use of such weapons i.e., use of nuclear weapons by the United States on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki setting a big example of such a use. A nuclear attack could kill
thousands and billions of people in not more than an hour. There exists more than 30,000
nuclear weapons in national stocks of nearly 8 nuclear weapons states that are, United
Kingdom, China, France, India, Israel (assumed), North Korea (claimed), Pakistan, Russia,
and the United States. A denotation of just one nuclear weapon would result in the killingnof
a 100,000 of people’s death. At present, The United States and Russia maintain several
thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert i.e., also called as launch on warning of a
nuclear attack.

Chemical weapons- These weapons are more evident due to their widespread and long
lasting commercial and military experiences. When compared to nuclear weapons these are
more easier and cheap to manufacture. An international agreement, The Chemical Weapons
Convention that came into force in 1997, which requires the signatories to destry all stocks of
chemical weapons as a result to which approximately 12 million metric tons of chemical
weapons have been destroyed.

Biological weapons- Use of such weapons have mostly been observed during wars or
terrorist attacks. There are many concerns for future use of such highly harm causing
weapons keeping in mind the dynamism of biodemical technology and developments made in
these industries. The technologies for creating such weapons have started becoming more
easily available. Several nations have created and maintained biological weapons, despite the
prohibition by The Geneva Convention for use of germ weapons in wars. Also, the biological
Weapons Convention prohibits development and use of biological weapons by the nations as
a use of force, but they do not have any huge enforcement policies that may stop the
development. Arrangements to establish proper inspections relating to banning production of
such weapons in the nations.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

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As mentioned earlier, a number of nations posses nuclear weapons in their inventory. On an
average such weapons posses an explosive power 20 times greater then weapons that
destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 2

How do nuclear weapons work?

Nuclear weapons are designed to cause large amount of damage through an explosion that
releases a large amount of energy in a short period of time. Nuclear bombs, create an
explosion wherein the atoms themselves are changed either by splitting or fusing two of them
together to create large explosions.

The amount of energy discharged in such a natural process is enormous many orders of
magnitude bigger than that discharged during a reaction leading to the arranging of
molecules. The number of energy out there among associate degree atom is given by
Einstein's illustrious formula E=mc2, where E = energy, m = the mass and c = the speed of
sunshine. Therefore the energy out there equals the mass increased by
9,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or the sq. of the speed of sunshine depicted in meters per
second). As a result, a nuclear bomb using one kilo of element may have identical explosive
force as close to fifteen million kilograms of the conventional explosive TNT. There are
particularly two types of nuclear weapons-

Fission weapons: In fission weapons, atoms are split. The core of a fission bomb is formed
of either chemical element or extremely enriched metallic element. chemical element and
metallic element atoms are each significant, that means they need an oversized variety of
protons and neutrons within the nucleus. throughout fission, once the significant nucleus
splits into 2 smaller nuclei, further neutrons square measure free. If these neutrons are
absorbed by alternative nuclei, they can, in turn, split, additionally releasing neutrons and
setting off what's referred to as a sequence reaction. chemical element or extremely enriched
metallic element are the sole materials best-known which will, under rigorously designed
circumstances, succeed such a devastatingly powerful, independent fissile chain reaction.

Fusion weapons: In fusion weapons—often known informally as element bombs—

deuterium and hydrogen, 2 isotopes of element, are amalgamated along to make heavier
atoms. this is often identical reaction that happens within the center of the sun. Fusion will
solely happen at extraordinarily high temperatures and pressure. in a fusion weapon, such a
state is made by employing a fission explosion (i.e. an atom bomb) to trigger the fusion
reaction. there's no theoretical limit to the explosive force of a fusion weapon. Typically,
fusion weapons are ten to one hundred times as explosive because the fission bombs dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

EFFECT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

A nuclear weapon realises many forms of energies often categorised as-

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  BLAST- This relates to realise of huge waves of energy so huge that they crush most
of the objects on earth namely, houses, buildings and human lungs.
 THERMAL RADIATION- this includes heat and light, the heat realised is so high
that it may vaporise most of the objects on earth.
 ELECTROMAGNET PULSE- A nuclear explosion releases electromagnetic pulse
similar to a thermal pulse, such pulses do not directly cause harm to humans but rather
disable all electronic devices nearby.
 FALLOUT-This involves a number of particles from the earth’s surface, which are
propelled upwards due to nuclear explosions which may come to back to earth within
a short period of time. 3

BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Stated most easily, biological warfare encompasses any deliberate suggests that to
spread disease to humans, animals or plants. Biological weapons, therefore, embrace a
frightening array of potentially deadly pathogens and toxins that may be delivered in a
very variety of ways. The threat ranges from the intentional poisoning of food in the
sort of enterobacteria, to the aerosol diffusion of a genetically-engineered strain of a
extremely communicable disease like smallpox. The intentional spread of
communicable disease elicits a special dread and worry. Disease, with the suffering it
causes and its capricious however unavoidable spread, highlights human
vulnerability. though we tend to acknowledge the present nature of germs and
sickness, their malicious development or use is both alarming and obscene. A
victorious biologic attack might conceivably lead to thousands, probably even
millions, of deaths and will cause severe disruptions to societies and economies.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS-

Diseases possibly to be thought of to be used as biological weapons are assessed in
terms of their deadliness and "robustness" that commonly refers to their shelf-life and
effective delivery in aerosol form. To be thought of a helpful weapon by military
planners, a biological agent should be highly infective and possess high efficiency.
Biological warfare comes in 2 basic forms: liquid and dry powder. For many agents,
the liquid kind is simpler to supply, however the dry kind stores longer and disperses
additional wide once deployed. In distinction to the immediate effects of a W.M.D.
attack, a W.M.D. attack takes a minute before its effects are apparent. Relying upon
the sort of war agent, incubation periods vary from below twenty four hours to a
couple of weeks. For this reason, biological weapons are usually represented as
strategic or terrorist weapons, instead of as military science weapons to be used for
immediate result on the battleground.

THE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

Like the former Soviet Union, the United States pursued a large-scale offensive
biological weapons program following warfare II. In 1969, however, President

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Richard Nixon proclaimed the U.S. decision to unilaterally renounce its offensive
biologic attack program and destroy its stockpiles. Technically, the utilization of
biologic attack was initial unlawful within the convention of 1925. however President
Nixon's daring move to finish the United State's offensive biologic attack program led
to three-party negotiations to outlaw biological weapons entirely and, in 1972, the
Biological Weapons Convention was signed. At the time, President Nixon's military
advisers concluded that biological weapons were unreliable and unpredictable. They
argued that biological weapons may spread out of management and initiate epidemics
in civilian populations on either facet of an armed conflict; moreover, their use would
possibly trigger a nuclear response. As a result, the 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention (BWC) bans the development, storage , transfer, and use of biological
weapons worldwide. The BWC was the primary comprehensive disarming written
agreement, having its primary purpose as the destruction of existing stocks of
biological weapons (BW) and also the hindrance of their proliferation. Signatories of
the Convention renounced their right to interact in military preparations for offensive
biological warfare, in spite of whether or not they are faced with the same threat. As
such, member states renounce the proper to in-kind retaliation or deterrence. Despite
its sweeping ban of a whole category of weapons, however, the BWC doesn't embrace
formal measures to make sure compliance by its 144 member-states. This lack of
associate degree social control mechanism has undermined the effectiveness of the
BWC. In the aftermath of the agreement, the united states disbanded its offensive
biological attack program and destroyed its stockpile whereas the Russia secretly
dilated its classified biological attack programs. As varied violations came to light-
weight following the conflict, the BWC came more and more to be seen as a
unsuccessful "gentleman's agreement" that lacked effective verification procedures.
As a result, within the 1990s, prolonged negotiations were undertaken to develop
potential verification measures, or what was called associate degree implementation
protocol. Upon taking office in 2001, President St. George W. Bush reversed previous
U.S. support of those negotiations, scuttling any prospect of an agreement on a
wrongfully binding compliance regime. Despite this impasse with relevance the
BWC, variety of alternative initiatives are afoot to strengthen international norms and
incentives for implementing national regimes to slow and reverse proliferation and
misuse of pathogens. Notably, several countries have enacted national legislation to
criminalize offensive biological attack analysis.

EFFORTS TO INCREASE BIOSECURITY

Over the past many years, the United States has dramatically enhanced biological
defence funding and undertaken a range of initiatives to forestall the acquisition and
intentional misuse of biological agents by would-be criminals, terrorists or spies.
Meanwhile, though, while most countries typically use identical four safety levels in
classifying sensitive materials, they observe no common standards concerning what
security measures are acceptable to every level.While by no means alone, the United
States doesn't have comprehensive laboratory safety laws. The present U.S. system
doesn't even have comprehensive coverage needs for accidental releases. a part of the
 matter is that labs are housed in terribly differing types of establishments with
variable degrees of oversight and answerability. These include: public universities;
non-public universities; non-profit institutes (including non-profit analysis hospitals);
government agencies; and also the non-public sector, starting from biotechnology
firms to health care suppliers. With this in mind, there's conjointly an urgent need for
expanded training and education in biosecurity and safety that has developing and
implementing "best practices" to strengthen moral norms and to uphold alleged
"codes of conduct" as a tool to combat the misapplication of biology.To be effective,
these biosecurity efforts should transcend national boundaries and be interlacing with
a multilayered public health approach to hindrance, detection and response. This
entails a larger stress on rising national and international illness surveillance and more
effective international capabilities for responding to suspicious outbreaks. No matter
what sickness strikes next, it's imperative to quickly establish and alert affected
populations and applicable authorities to dangerous outbreaks. This needs integrated
methods for combating best-known risks (e.g. ebola, plague), responding to the
sudden (e.g. epidemic intelligence, verification of events, assessment of humanitarian
impact and coordination of speedy specialised response), and improving global,
national and native preparation. The World Health Organization (WHO), established
in 1948, is liable for coordinating the intergovernmental system of reporting disease
outbreaks. Sadly , this method operates with terribly restricted monetary resources
and depends upon voluntary reporting and contributions by member states. Fast and
reliable reporting is crucial to efforts to diagnose, treat and control malady outbreaks
with a minimum loss of life. However several regions are unfit in this effort by
obvious shortcomings in existing public health infrastructure. In spite of what lies
ahead, we tend to all benefit by increasing funding and international partnerships to
boost our ability to quickly establish and alert relevant public health authorities to
new disease outbreaks where they occur around the globe.While there's abundant
discussion over the effectively of current biological defence programs, strengthening
world efforts to notice and contain epidemics provides clear and sustainable public
health advantages. The recent irruption of Severe Acute metabolism Syndrome
(SARs) in 2003 offers a good case in point. In response to reports of severe malady
and death from an unknown virus, United Nations agency with success managed a
world partnership referred to as the global Alert and Response Network (GOARN).
This new international collaboration succeeded in quickly distinguishing and
containing the spread of respiratory disorder. The response to the irruption of
respiratory disorder offers one in every of the few bright spots within the realm of
infectious disease that deserves fuller scrutiny. Within the event of the intentional
release of a biological agent, WHO's global alert and response network would be a
significant part of any effective international containment efforts.4

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CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Chemical weapons, categorised as the most easily available weapons that are used to
kill, injure and harm a large number of population. There exist nearly 6000 industrial
manufacturing facilities where such weapons can be produced and can be easily
acquired. These weapons have been existing for more than thousands of years, for
instance, poison arrows, toxic smoke or other tactics. The manufacturing took a major
turn during the twentieth century when more better and advanced technologies of
manufacturing were developed. During the world war- I, chemical weapons were
widely used on the tract, inflicting as several as 100,000 deaths and over 1,000,000
injuries. Over the course of world war II and through the conflict, major powers
developed huge arsenals of chemical weapons that enclosed massive quantities of a
more fatal type of alleged agent. The United States and Russia possess the biggest and
most fatal CW stocks. Iraq's use of chemical weapons within the war in the 1980s and
also the terrorist gas attack in the Tokyo Underground Railroad by the cult Aum
Shinrikyo in 1995 offer chilling and comparatively recent samples of the
indiscriminate and brutal effects of those weapons.

TYPES OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Chemical weapons can result in a mass killing of a huge amount of population or
rather, evade a large number of population. There is a prolonged debate over whether
these chemical weapons should be categorised as mass weapons or not. Some define it
as a mass casualty weapon due to its poisonous effects like, inhalation, ingestion or
contact with the skin. There are roughly seventy varieties of toxic chemicals that have
been stocked or stored for their use in wars. Some types of chemical weapons are-
Choking or pulmonary agents- chemicals such as chlorine gas attack lung tissue and
cause respiratory distress.
Blister agents or vesicants- including gases that cause blisters on one’s skin and in
the respiratory tract resulting in deaths.
Blood agents- they interfere with a person’s oxygen levels leading to death.
Nerve agents- these incapacitate the bodies nervous system leading to death.

THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION

The Chemical Weapons Convention, or CWC, prohibits the development, production,
storage, acquisition, or transfer of chemical weapons. an interesting accomplishment,
the CWC is the initial disarming agreement negotiated at intervals a multilateral
framework that provides for the elimination of a complete class of weapons of mass
destruction underneath universally applied international management. Notably, the
written agreement not only outlaws the utilization of chemical weapons, however
commits nations to eliminating existing stocks of those weapons. The CWC entered
into force in April 1997 and currently has 175 signatories. The CWC is exclusive
because it provides for the international verification of the destruction of those
weapons and was negotiated with the active participation of the global industry, thus
making certain industry's ongoing cooperation with the CWC's industrial verification
 regime. The Convention mandates the inspection of business facilities to make sure
that toxic chemicals are used exclusively for functions not prohibited by the
Convention. Nonetheless, several believe that the threat posed by chemical weapons
has not diminished considerably for three main reasons: some of countries suspected
of possessing chemical weapons have refused to register to the pact (notably, DPRK,
Israel, Syria, Taiwan and Egypt); the overwhelming majority of chemical weapons
haven't nonetheless been destroyed; and therefore the widespread availability of the
precursors and technologies underlying chemical weapons. Overall, nations with
chemical weapons stockpiles have lagged behind in destroying them as scheduled by
the Chemical Weapons Convention: of the 70,000 metric tons of declared weapons
agents, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has
verified the destruction of only 12,000 tons. If this pace persists, the Convention's
goal to finish the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles will not be met by the
extended point of 2012.While a lot of remains to be accomplished, the Chemical
Weapons pact marks a significant milestone in terms of progress toward
demilitarization. At the first review conference on implementing the CWT, leaders
assessed it as follows: "The Chemical Weapons Convention performs a significant
confidence-building role in international society. strengthened by effective national
legislation, the CWC permits its States parties to satisfy themselves that others don't
seem to be seeking to accumulate such weapons. The Convention therefore serves a
sensible goal of enhancing security, an ethical goal of eliminating one amongst the
world's most cruel and in human weapons, and a political goal of building a standard
forum for reaffirming and strengthening the global taboo on such weapons."5

CONCLUSION:
From the above information, we can know how hazardous, such weapons of mass
destruction are, these weapons if not controlled or handled properly might even lead
to eradication of a whole generation of humans. Therefore, proper and effective
measures are required to be appropriated to avoid use of such deadly weapons
resulting in such large number of losses of human life. The measures that have
already been taken should be re-instigated again in an effective manner for better
control.

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