Bradford Project on Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)

Video background briefings

The Project on Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention enters the digital age with internet video lectures. In the first of its series of Current Commentaries on arms control in the twenty-first century the Project presents nine web-videos on the initiative to strengthen the international legal prohibition against biological weapons. For those interested in the BTWC Protocol negotiations, the videos draw some useful parallels between the BTWC Protocol and the treaty banning chemical weapons which entered into-force in 1997.

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The Resumed Session of the Fifth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, November 2002.

Video briefings can be watched in Real player available free at Real.com or in Widnows Media Player

TThe Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Review Conference

The following 7 videos deal with issues of relevance to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Review Conference process. Further videos can be found also on this page which relate to the problems posed to international security by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Please see Arms Control and International Security videos 1- 13 below.

Arms Control and International Security

The videos below (No.s 1 to 13) focus on biological weapons and the future possibility of their control. The module begins at Video 1 at the foot of the page. These videos are only available in Real player.

In Video 13 Video interview with David Atwood, Associate Representative, Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva, on the wider consequences of the failure to agree a Procedural Report at the 24th session of the Ad Hoc Group. (Filmed on the final day (17th August 2001) of the final day of the 24th session of the Ad Hoc Group.)

In Video 12 Video interview with Jenni Rissanen, Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, Geneva Analyst, on the failure to agree a Procedural Report at the 24th session of the Ad Hoc Group. (Filmed on the final day (17 August 2001) of the final day of the 24th session of the Ad Hoc Group.)

In Video 11 In the light of the US rejection of the draft Protocol to the Bioilogical and Toxin Weapons Convention Graham S. Pearson gives an overview of the main points of Evaluation Paper No. 22 titled, 'The US Rejection of the Composite Protocol: A Huge Mistake based on Illogical Assessments.

In Video 10 Ambassador Tibor Toth, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group, gives an address relating to the submission to the Ad Hoc Group of the Chairman's Composite Text of the Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In Video 9 Richard Guthrie describes the central pillars of the verification regime for the Chemical Weapons Convention and assesses the relevance of a similar verification architecture for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In Video 8 Daniel Feakes assesses the success of the implementation of the Chemcial Weapons Convention and comments on the potential for such a regime for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In Video 7 Julian P. Perry Robinson discusses the role of national and international authorities in the implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Protocol.

In Video 6 Julian P. Perry Robinson discusses the role of the General Purpose Criterion in the implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In Video 5 Julian P. Perry Robinson discusses the role of national and international authorities in the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In Video 4 Julian P. Perry Robinson discusses the implementation of the General Purpose Criterion in the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In Video 3 Julian P. Perry Robinson describes the so called 'General Purpose Criterion' and the way in this mechanism operates in the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In Video 2 Professor Graham S. Pearson discusses the scope of the international legal prohibition against biological warfare and provides an overview of the status of negotiations, currently in the end-game phase, to agree a legally-binding verification Protocol to the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

In Video 1 Professor Paul Rogers gives a brief overview of the present status of international legal prohibitions against both nuclear and chemical weapons. He then goes on to discuss the need to strengthen the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.