Living Weapons

Biological Warfare and International Security

Gregory D. Koblentz

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780801477522
• eBook ISBN: 9780801457661
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"Biological weapons are widely feared, yet rarely used. Biological weapons were the first weapon prohibited by an international treaty, yet the proliferation of these weapons increased after they were banned in 1972. Biological weapons are frequently called 'the poor man's atomic bomb,' yet they cannot provide the same deterrent capability as nuclear weapons. One of my goals in this book is to explain the underlying principles of these apparent paradoxes."—from Living Weapons

Biological weapons are the least well understood of the so-called weapons of mass destruction. Unlike nuclear and chemical weapons, biological weapons are composed of, or derived from, living organisms. In Living Weapons, Gregory D. Koblentz provides a comprehensive analysis of the unique challenges that biological weapons pose for international security. At a time when the United States enjoys overwhelming conventional military superiority, biological weapons have emerged as an attractive means for less powerful states and terrorist groups to wage asymmetric warfare.

Koblentz also warns that advances in the life sciences have the potential to heighten the lethality and variety of biological weapons. The considerable overlap between the equipment, materials and knowledge required to develop biological weapons, conduct civilian biomedical research, and develop biological defenses creates a multiuse dilemma that limits the effectiveness of verification, hinders civilian oversight, and complicates threat assessments.

Living Weapons draws on the American, Soviet, Russian, South African, and Iraqi biological weapons programs to enhance our understanding of the special challenges posed by these weapons for arms control, deterrence, civilian-military relations, and intelligence. Koblentz also examines the aspirations of terrorist groups to develop these weapons and the obstacles they have faced. Biological weapons, Koblentz argues, will continue to threaten international security until defenses against such weapons are improved, governments can reliably detect biological weapon activities, the proliferation of materials and expertise is limited, and international norms against the possession and use of biological weapons are strengthened.

1

OFFENSE, DEFENSE, AND DETERRENCE

Biological warfare is the use of microorganisms, toxins derived from living organisms, or bioregulators to deliberately cause the death or illness of humans, plants, or animals.1 Biological weapons are unique among the instruments of warfare because they are composed of, or derived from, living organisms. This feature of biological weapons has several important implications for their use in warfare and their impact on international security.

Disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi are called pathogens. Pathogens require a human, plant, or animal host in order to multiply and cause disease. Because these organisms are self-reproducing, a small dose can initiate an infection. Once a pathogen infects a host, its effects are determined by a complex interaction between the microorganism and the host’s immune system. The time between infection and the onset of disease symptoms is called the incubation period, and it can last for days or weeks. If the disease is transmissible from person to person, a small number of infections could spark an epidemic.

Since toxins and bioregulators are nonliving molecules that do not replicate in the body, the initial exposure dose is what causes the illness. This means that toxins tend to be faster acting than pathogens, causing effects within hours or at most a day or two. Their effects are still slower than some chemical weapons, such as nerve agents, which can kill victims within minutes. Toxins can be derived from a variety of sources such as plants (ricin from the castor bean), animals (saxitoxin from shellfish), fungi (aflatoxin from Aspergillus flavus), or bacteria (botulinum toxin from Clostridium botulinum). The number of toxins that are highly lethal and easily obtainable in large quantities, however, is far more limited than the number of pathogens with these attributes.

Bioregulators are a relatively recent addition to the traditional definition of biological weapons as being pathogens and toxins. Bioregulators are chemicals normally produced in the human body that control communication between cells and that play a crucial role in governing the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin and endorphins are responsible for communication between cells in the nervous system. Hormones such as insulin and epinephrine are used to communicate between organs in the endocrine and cardiovascular systems. Cytokines such as interleukins play a role in modulating the immune system. Small imbalances in the level of bioregulators can have dramatic effects on cognition, emotion, and physiological processes.2

Biological weapons, whether pathogens, toxins, or bioregulators, are selective in their targets. They affect only living things and do not damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, or machinery. Most biological agents are fragile creatures. These agents require special measures to stay alive or stable during production, storage, delivery, and dissemination. Most of these agents will die if exposed to sunlight or extremes of temperature or humidity. Thus, the use of biological agents as weapons is fraught with uncertainties.

A History of Biological Warfare

The history of biological warfare can be divided into four eras: (1) pre—germ theory, (2) applied microbiology, (3) industrial microbiology and aerobiology, and (4) molecular biology and biotechnology.3 These eras roughly correspond to developments in science and technology in the field of microbiology that successively yielded more capable generations of biological weapons. The four eras of biological warfare are tied to changes in the ability of scientists to identify and isolate pathogens, modify them to yield desired properties, produce larger quantities of a wider range of agents, and more effectively weaponize and disseminate these agents. This evolution is not only a description of the past but is also a warning about the potential misuse of advanced biotechnologies for hostile purposes in the future. This framework applies to both state and terrorist efforts to develop BW capabilities. The history of biological terrorism is related in chapter 5.

Pre—Germ Theory

Biological warfare has been practiced since ancient times, though the number of actual attacks is small. Disease was particularly common and deadly during war. Throughout this era, naturally occurring diseases commonly killed more soldiers than the enemy, and thus they had a significant impact on military conflicts.4 The natural impact of disease on military campaigns probably motivated early attempts to harness disease as a weapon. Although military forces did not know what caused disease until the development of the germ theory in the late 1800s, they could easily identify sources of disease such as dead bodies.

Armies engaged in biological warfare by contaminating water supplies using toxic plants or dead animals, catapulting infected corpses into fortified areas, giving infected materials to the enemy, and by sending people infected with contagious disease into the enemy’s camp. These tactics relied on the use of fomites (a physical object that serves to transmit an infectious agent) or vectors (a living organism such as a human or insect that transmits disease) as crude munitions. The history of Greek and Roman warfare is replete with references to the use of toxic plants and dead animals to contaminate water supplies.5 In 1346 Mongols reportedly catapulted corpses infected with Yersinia pestis (the bacterium that causes plague) into the besieged city of Kaffa in the Crimea. In 1763, during the French and Indian War, beleaguered British soldiers at Fort Pitt gave blankets contaminated with variola (the virus that causes smallpox) to hostile Native American tribes. During the American Revolution, British forces may have tried to infect the Continental Army with smallpox by sending infected individuals behind enemy lines. Given the prevalence of these diseases at the time and the lack of authoritative records, it is difficult to determine if any of these attacks was successful.6

Applied Microbiology

The second era in biological warfare was enabled by the development of germ theory, which identified microorganisms as the causative agent of disease. As a result of experimental breakthroughs, scientists in the late 1800s were able to identify several bacteria as the causes of specific diseases and developed the ability to grow bacteria artificially. Pathogens selected, produced, and employed as weapons during this era were almost exclusively bacteria, in that at this time these were the only pathogens that could be isolated and grown in laboratories. Dissemination of biological agents remained limited to fomites and vectors.

Defenses against disease and biological weapons also improved markedly during this era. Once germ theory was widely accepted, it became possible to block disease transmission by improving sanitation and hygiene. Applied microbiology also led to the creation of vaccines to prevent a number of common diseases. The discovery of penicillin provided physicians for the first time with the means to cure a range of bacterial diseases.

During World War I, Germany applied this knowledge in an extensive sabotage campaign to infect cavalry and draft animals being shipped from neutral countries to the Allies.7 In response to the horrors of chemical warfare during World War I, the use of chemical and biological weapons was banned in 1925 under the Geneva Protocol. Because the Geneva Protocol did not prohibit the development of chemical and biological weapons and most of the signatories reserved the right to retaliate with these weapons if they were attacked first, most of the great powers had offensive and defensive BW programs by the beginning of World War II.8 Japan’s BW program was the largest of its kind during this era.

Japan embarked on an aggressive BW program in 1931 under the leadership of the military scientist Ishii Shiro.9 Research was conducted primarily in China and included gruesome experiments on thousands of prisoners. Despite the scope of their research and the amount of resources invested in it, the Japanese could not overcome important scientific and technical hurdles. They were able to produce hundreds of kilograms of BW agents, but their production methods were crude and inefficient. Japan also failed to develop an effective munition to disseminate BW agents. Instead, they were forced to rely on fomites, vectors such as fleas infected with Y. pestis, and contamination of food and water supplies to spread disease. Japan first used biological weapons on a limited scale against Soviet forces in 1939.10 Between 1939 and 1942, the Japanese also conducted a number of biological attacks against Chinese civilians and soldiers with Bacillus anthracis (the bacterium that causes anthrax), Burkholderia mallei (the bacterium that causes glanders), Vibrio cholerae (the bacterium that causes cholera), Salmonella Typhi (the bacterium that causes typhoid), and Y. pestis. Although these operations succeeded in causing widespread epidemics, the techniques proved unreliable, caused Japanese casualties as well, and did not provide Japan with a significant advantage over the Chinese opposition forces. These attacks are the only confirmed large-scale use of biological weapons in the twentieth century.

Decades later, Rhodesia and South Africa adopted unsophisticated means of spreading disease among rebel groups and their supporters similar to the methods used by Japan. In the late 1970s, Rhodesian counterinsurgency units used B. anthracis, V. cholerae, and various poisons to contaminate clothing, food, drinks, and water supplies used by guerilla groups and their supporters.11 South Africa’s apartheid-era chemical and biological weapons (CBW) program, Project Coast, adopted these techniques in the 1980s. The program supplied members of South African security services with small quantities of poisons, toxins, and pathogens such as B. anthracis, V. cholerae, and Salmonella Typhimurium (the bacterium that causes salmonellosis) to contaminate food and beverages or in assassination weapons used against members and supporters of the African National Congress.12

Industrial Microbiology and Aerobiology

By the end of World War II, the science and technology applicabl...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Offense, Defense, and Deterrence
• 2 Verification
• 3 Oversight
• 4 Intelligence
• 5 Biological Terrorism
• Conclusion