The term weapons of mass destruction has a long and changing history. There is no generally recognized definition or one that is binding under international law. UN Security Council Resolution 1540 of 28 April 2004 gives one indirect definition that is widely used by policymakers and in society.

Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction that derive their destructive force from nuclear reactions, the fission or fusion of the atom.

The United Nations consider biological weapons as "systems that disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants". Together with nuclear and chemical agents, they make up the group of so-called weapons of mass destruction.

As a means of mass destruction, chemical weapons claim many fatalities and injured but are relatively cheap to produce. While chemical weapons were first developed and used during World War I, their use continued in World War II, the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War (1980 to 1988).

Depending on from where they are deployed, means of delivery can be categorized into land-, air- and sea-based systems or, based on their function, in air defence, sea- or land-based cruise missiles.

Since 8 August 1945, the day of the destruction of Nagasaki by the atomic bomb, codenamed 'Little Boy', no other nuclear weapon has been deployed in any other war. This taboo has not been broken for more than 65 years.

Aided by France, Israel built a nuclear research reactor in Dimona, in the Negev desert in 1956. Later on, a subterranean reprocessing plant was added that produced weapons-grade plutonium.

In April 2012, a formulation was included in the constitution of North Korea that the country “is in possession of the atomic bomb” (North Korea officially declares itself as a nuclear power). In 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016, the authoritarian state have carried out a nuclear test.

Nuclear weapons have shaped Europe’s history of for nearly 60 years. In March 1955, the US armed forces began to store atomic bombs in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The civilian and military use of nuclear technology can be compared to Siamese twins. They are so closely connected that one can hardly separate them. The civilian use of nuclear technology can create knowledge, materials and technology that can also be used for a military nuclear programme.

Immediately after the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first efforts at containing and eliminating the nuclear danger were made - and are still ongoing. In principle, bilateral, multilateral and universal agreements could have two goals: Disarmament and arms control.

The fear of a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists is nearly as old as the weapon itself. Already in the early 1950s did Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the US-American atomic bomb, warn that three to four people could destroy New York...

Nuclear material originates from nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and research reactors. Radiological materials are substances with a rather low radiation, used in industry and hospitals (particularly radiotherapy).

Biological weapons have the reputation of being ‘exotic’, in reality, they are as old as the history of warfare itself. In the hope of infecting their enemies with illnesses, the Romans threw faeces at them.

The so-called UN Biological Weapons Convention that entered into force in 1975 takes an important step further than the Geneva Protocol, negotiated half a century earlier, which tried to stop the deployment of biological weapons.

The so-called Biological Weapons Convention was recommended for adherence by the General Assembly on 16 December 1971. Its full title is “Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction”.

The threat of the Cold War was hardly over when concerns arose in the Western world that terrorist groups would be able to acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them for vicious attacks. The use of biological weapons by such ‘super terrorists’ seemed to be a particularly grave danger.

According to what chemists know, the material world consists of more than 40 million of different substances of which 80,000 are also produced artificially. A proportion of these substances has harmful effects on humans or nature.

The deployment of chemical weapons has some ‘advantages’ for the military: Chemical weapons as weapons of mass destruction can kill a significant number of people or soldiers in a more or less large area.

Chemical weapons were the first weapons of mass destruction. Despite the large number of victims, their deployment has never been decisive for the outcome of war.