Mauritania joins the Biological Weapons Convention

Earlier this year, on 28 January, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention (the BWC – formally named the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological [Biological] and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction).

The news was announced on 4 February by the United Kingdom, one of the three depositories of the BWC along with the United States and Russia. By acceding to the convention, Mauritania formally commits never to develop, produce, acquire, transfer, retain, stockpile or use biological weapons. While the state was not suspected of pursuing a clandestine biological weapons programme, its recent accession remains a meaningful development as it brings additional trust in the peaceful nature of its activities, and strengthens the global move towards non-proliferation.
Mauritania joining the BWC is also an important step towards the convention being globally implemented, as it now has 172 states parties. Prior to Mauritania, the most recent state to accede had been Myanmar, on 1 December last year, and there are encouraging signs that Andorra and Angola may soon follow suit.

ISS Paper 258: Biological Weapons Convention: Confidence, the prohibition and learning from the past

Confidence in the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) needs to be strengthened. When thinking about how to do this, hard questions must be asked about why confidence building measures aren't working and what else is needed to establish and maintain confidence between states parties. This paper reflects on how those involved in the BWC process collectively assess issues affecting the convention. It focuses on the prevalence of defensive reasoning, which inhibits robust enquiry and encourages anti-learning practices. It argues that instead of more of the same, alternative types of discussions needed to be nurtured.

Authors: Brian Rappert and Chandre Gould

Click here to download Paper No 258

The authors are grateful for a research grant award from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The ISS is grateful for support from the following members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the USA