摘要：
In the wake of the anthrax attacks over the past few weeks, scientists acrossthe world have the opportunity to unite in a bid to create a less dangerous world. As the RoyalSociety emphasized in a report last year,* the international scientific community has a crucial roleto play in tackling the threat from biological weapons, and it is essential that this challenge bemet directly on many fronts. Scientists need to support policy-makers in negotiations to secure aneffective international instrument banning the development, production, and use of biologicalweapons. This could be achieved almost immediately at the Fifth Review Conference of the 1972Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), to be held in Geneva between 19 November and 7 December, wherethe 144 states party to the BWC will be seeking to gain consensus on the most effective means ofreinforcing the existing ban. It is vital that all the parties to the BWC, including the UnitedStates, find a way for- ward together to reach a positive outcome. It is not possible for any singlenation to protect itself fully from the malign use of biological agents without complementaryaction by all other countries. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), now in its fourth year of fullimplementation, demonstrates that international instruments can be put into practice. Unlike theBWC, the CWC provides an elaborate international verification system, which is operated from TheHague by 500 staff members at its headquarters and in its inspectorate at the Organisation for theProhibition of Chemical Weapons. The CWC verification system applies both to military facilities forchemical weapons defense and to the civil manufacturing industry, providing insurance againstmaleficent uses of technologies that have beneficial applications, without at the same time undulyburdening, endangering, or otherwise constraining industry. The key to introducing this system wasthe involvement of the chemicals industry worldwide in the negotiation of the CWC fr
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