Britain and Disarmament The UK and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons Arms Control and Programmes 1956-1975

Since the use of poison gas during the First World War and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War, nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) weapons have registered high on the fears of governments and individuals alike. Recognising both the particular horror of these weapons, and their potential for inflicting mass death and destruction, much effort has been expended in finding ways to eliminate such weapons on a multi-lateral level. Based on extensive official archives, this book looks at how successive British governments approached the subject of control and disarmament between 1956 and 1975. This period reflects the UK's landmark decision in 1956 to abandon its offensive chemical weapons programme (a decision that was reversed in 1963, but never fully implemented), and ends with the internal travails over the possible use of CR (tear gas) in Northern Ireland. Whilst the issue of nuclear arms control has been much debated, the integration of biological and chemical weapons into the wider disarmament picture is much less well understood, there being no clear statement by the UK authorities for much of the period under review in this book as to whether the country even possessed such weapons or had an active research and development programme. Through a thorough exploration of government records the book addresses fundamental questions relating to the history of NBC weapons programmes, including the military, economic and political pressures that influenced policy; the degree to which the UK was a reluctant or enthusiastic player on the international arms control stage; and the effect of international agreements on Britain's weapons programmes. In exploring these issues, the study provides the first attempt to assess UK NBC arms control policy and practice during the Cold War.

Chapter 1 Introduction Britain and Disarmament: Weapons Programmes and Arms Control: Balancing Conflicting Requirements; Chapter 2 The UK’s Offensive CW Programmes: Abandonment and Aspirations 1956–1969; Chapter 3 1 ‘Inappropriately hilarious’ was a phrase used to describe the condition of some UK soldiers after a field trial of an incapacitating agent when they were under observation in a hospital. See TNA WO 195/16694, Applied Biology Committee: SMALL CHANGE (field trials with and incapacitant), 1968; Chapter 4 A Tale of Two Riot Control Agents: UK Attitudes to CS and the 1925 Geneva Protocol and CR in Warfare and Law Enforcement 1969–1975; Chapter 5 The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: Origins of the UK Proposal to Separate BW from CW 1968; Chapter 6 The UK and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Negotiating History: March–September 1971: The Key Months; Chapter 7 The UK and Why ‘Research’ Was Dropped from the Draft Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention; Chapter 8 The UK Nuclear Weapons Programme, Fissile Material Cut-off and Safeguards 1956–1973; Chapter 9 UK Nuclear Weapons, the Atlantic Nuclear Force (ANF) and the NPT 1962–1968; Chapter 10 UK Nuclear Weapons and the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks 1969–1973; Chapter 11; Conclusions: Britain and Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Arms Control and Disarmament; annex 1 Main Operative Articles only included here;

Dr John R. Walker works in the Arms Control and Disarmament Research Unit, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK.