event

Biological Weapons in the Twentieth Century

Tue. May 1st, 2001

On May 1, 2001 Milton Leitenberg, a Senior Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies, spoke on biological weapons at the Carnegie Endowment as part of the on-going Proliferation Roundtable series. Dr. Leitenberg was a member of the group of experts from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that produced the six-volume study, The Problem Of Chemical And Biological Warfare, published between 1971 and 1973. Since 1992 Dr. Leitenberg has authored or published 25 papers on various aspects of biological weapons issues, including the 1996 monograph, Biological Weapons Arms Control.

Dr. Leitenberg presented a historical survey of national biological weapons programs during the two World Wars and in the years since 1945. His presentation also examined the rare occurrences of biological weapons use, the history of the efforts to control these weapons, and the problem of the continuing proliferation of biological weapons in the decades since the Biological Weapons Convention entered into force. He concluded with an analysis of the developments in the 1990s, and what they portend for the future.

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