About the paper
Contents
About the author

Non-lethal weapons are intended to incapacitate personnel or materiel without injuring people. This Policy Paper describes and analyses biological and chemical substances that have the potential to be used as weapons or can improve the efficacy of other, more traditional, weapons. Potential loopholes in the international prohibitions against chemical and biological warfare are presented together with practical, politically feasible and technically useful policy options.

Chemical and biological substances may be used to incapacitate or influence human behaviour and can be used in both wars and other conflict situations, including for peacekeeping and some counterterrorism operations. The possible applications of science and technology for developing such agents are also expanding. This Policy Paper strikes the right balance between scientific detail and reader-friendliness to inform both the specialist and the generalist on this emergent and complex issue.

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Background
3. Chemical agents
4. Disabling biochemical substances and synthetic biology
5. Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A. International law with potential application to non-lethal weapons

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About the author

Dr Ronald G. Sutherland (Canada) is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Saskatchewan. He has conducted research on organic and organometallic chemistry. His current focus is on chemical and biological weapons and environmental modification as a method of warfare. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications. He also co-edited and contributed to National Implementation of the Future Chemical Weapons Convention, SIPRI Chemical & Biological Warfare Studies no. 11 (1990), and Effective Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention: Proceedings (1995) and co-authored ‘Maintaining the effectiveness of the Chemical Weapons Convention’, a SIPRI fact sheet (2002).

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Publisher: SIPRI
ISBN 978-91-85114-59-7
40 pp.
November 2008
Price: €7.50 per copy plus €5 shipping and handling per order