Chemical-biological-radiological warfare (CBR) is war waged with toxic chemicals, deadly microorganisms, or radioactive materials. CBR includes both the use of CBR weapons and the application of defenses against such weapons. CBR weapons can be designed to kill or temporarily disable large numbers of people or to disrupt their food supplies. Such weapons typically harm living things without destroying nearby buildings or other physical property.
Chemical weapons
can affect the nervous system, respiratory system, skin, and eyes. The most lethal chemical weapons are those that contain nerve agents. These chemicals interfere with the action of nerves that control muscles. They can cause death in minutes. Other chemical agents are not necessarily fatal but can make victims unable to fight. These agents may cause burns, confusion, temporary blindness, and other effects. Defenses against chemical weapons include the use of gas masks, the wearing of outer protective coverings, and injections of antidotes.
Chemical warfare has a long history. The Spartans used pitch and sulfur in a form of chemical warfare during the Peloponnesian War, in the 400’s B.C. But chemical weapons did not become a major part of warfare until World War I (1914-1918). During this war, all main combatants used chemical weapons. These weapons took the forms of toxic gases, liquids, and powders. Some were sprayed from airplanes. More commonly, toxic chemicals were dispersed by exploding bombs, artillery shells, or land mines. The most damaging chemical agent of World War I was mustard gas. It caused huge blisters on the skin and blinded soldiers who did not wear gas masks. Approximately 5 percent of all World War I casualties were caused by chemical weapons.
The horrors of modern chemical warfare shocked the world. In 1925, many of the world’s nations adopted an international treaty called the Geneva Protocol. It forbids nations to use chemical weapons in warfare. However, the Geneva Protocol has no provision for verifying that nations actually follow it. The Japanese and Italians used chemical weapons in the 1930’s. During World War II (1939-1945), with the exception of Japan, none of the countries fighting used chemical weapons. But Germany developed the first nerve agents in 1938, and many countries stockpiled chemical weapons throughout the war. During the 1980’s, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran and the Kurds. In 1997, the Geneva Protocol was superseded by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which does have provisions for verification.
Chemical weapons were also used in the Syrian civil war that began in 2011. Some weapons contained the poisonous gas chlorine. Others contained sarin, a deadly nerve agent. The United Nations reported that rockets loaded with sarin gas exploded near a suburb of Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013, killing hundreds. The United States accused the government of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, of launching these attacks. Assad denied using chemical weapons. Nevertheless, due to international pressure, Assad’s government joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and began dismantling its chemical weapon stockpiles.
Biological weapons
make use of harmful microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, to hurt or kill people, animals, or plants. The use of such weapons is sometimes called germ warfare. In theory, a small quantity of certain microorganisms could kill millions of people if distributed effectively. Biological weapons could also be used to make enemy soldiers too sick to fight. Or such weapons could disrupt an enemy’s food supply by killing crops and animals important to agriculture.
Like chemical warfare, biological warfare dates back to ancient times. Ancient and medieval soldiers sometimes threw diseased corpses over the walls of besieged cities or dropped them into water wells. During the French and Indian wars (1689-1763) in North America, blankets used by smallpox victims were given to Indians with the intention of spreading the illness. In World War II, Japan used plague-causing bacteria against the Chinese. Biological weapons have otherwise never played a part in modern warfare. But military strategists must assume that some aggressive nations, and possibly some terrorist groups, possess such weapons. Thus, much research is devoted to developing defenses against biological weapons. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the Department of Defense to terminate the United States’ biological offensive warfare program and to destroy all existing stockpiles of biological weapons.
In 1975, an international agreement called the Biological Weapons Convention went into effect. The convention prohibits nations from developing, producing, and storing biological and toxin weapons. As each country joined this convention, it had to promise to destroy its biological weapons. However, the Soviet Union ratified the treaty despite operating a secret biological warfare program that continued until the union’s dissolution in December 1991. Member states have sought to strengthen the convention with verification provisions, but with little success.
Radiological
weapons give off invisible radiation that can damage a person’s internal organs and even cause death. Radiation from nuclear fallout could be a major factor in any war involving nuclear weapons. Radiological warfare is dangerous for all sides in a war. A nuclear weapon used against an enemy would create fallout that might be carried by winds back to the country or troops that used the weapon. Radioactivity might also make an area temporarily unfit for life.
Unlike chemical and biological warfare, radiological warfare did not exist before the 1940’s. It only became possible with the development of nuclear weapons. When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, many people who survived the initial blast died later from radiation sickness.
