Security forces simulate chemical attack outside Israeli Parliament. Demotix/ Yaniv Nadav. All rights reserved. Although the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for the courage and inventiveness displayed in removing Syria’s chemical weapons (CW) from Syria for destruction elsewhere, it is now ineffectual and powerless in the face of the proliferation of CW by extremist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Although the proliferation of this weapon of mass destruction is for the time being confined to the Middle East, the knowledge and experience already acquired by extremist groups with global connections will ensure that, sooner or later, CW will be used elsewhere.
When the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was negotiated, during and immediately after the Cold War, the negotiators – all governments – could not anticipate the emergence of powerful, well-funded internationally-connected terrorist groups with the capacity to produce and use their own CW. The CWC negotiators also could not have anticipated the speed with which new production technologies would develop, making it possible for at least some CW to be produced with relative ease in backyard laboratories.
