Recent History of Development

• Many nations involved in biological weapons (BW)

• Treaties enacted:

  • Geneva Protocol (1925)
  • Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (1975); U.S. stops
    • USSR stops ~ 1994

• 1990s: Threat shifts from Cold War rogue states, terrorists

  • 10 countries may have anthrax
  • 11 countries suspected of having smallpox
  • Extensive Soviet BW program revealed weaponized anthrax
    • Sverdlovsk anthrax incident kills ~1,000
    • Annual smallpox stockpile of 20 tons
    • Tests of aerosolized smallpox on Renaissance Island in the Aral Sea in ‘71

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