This map layer shows the possession of biological weapons in four categories.
Detailed statements on the possession of biological weapons of individual states are difficult to make as many biological weapons programmes are/were secret, and there are no independent evaluations or publicly available databases. For the purpose of this map, countries were classed in four categories. Possession known, possession possible, possession unlikely and no possession.
So far, no country has publicly and officially declared or admitted that it possesses biological weapons. Countries that in 2018 ran a biological weapons programme or a research programme on biological weapons and that supposedly were in possession of biological weapons make up the category 'possession possible'. Countries that used to run a (research) programme on biological weapons, however, did not show any interest in research at the time of publication and countries that conducted research on biological weapons but did not possess biological weapons are included in the category 'possession unlikely'. All other countries make up the category 'no possession'.
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Research on war agents - Offensive research, defensive research
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.
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A toothless tiger? The Biological Weapons Convention and its challenges
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”.
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Biological weapons and biological warfare - A short history
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.
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