Abstract
Because of its central importance in the diplomacy of biological disarmament, the question of verification as it featured in the Review Conference deserves a chapter to itself. We shall therefore examine in detail Sweden’s campaign to strengthen the complaint and consultation procedures of the Convention, including the important parts played by the British and Soviet delegations as the campaign developed and the conference evolved a distinct pattern. As a sequence of diplomacy it repays close analysis. Moreover, no forward look or prospective such as will be essayed in later chapters of this book will make much sense unless it can assume knowledge of what took place in this sector of the review process during March 1980.
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Notes
Alva Myrdal, The Game of Disarmament (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977) p. 275.
Nicholas A Sims, ‘Consultative Committees as “Appropriate International Procedures” in Disarmament-related Treaties’, Transnational Perspectives (Geneva), IV. 1–2 (Spring 1978 pp. 15–19.
Julian Perry Robinson, ‘Biological Weapons at Geneva’ (unpublished paper, 26 March 1980), p. 2.
Cf. Nicholas A. Sims, ‘Prospects for the Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference’ (January 1980): ‘… the way the Convention works to resolve suspicions must be improved. The present position is far from satisfactory in this regard, and recognised as such by many governments even if they will not say so in public … There is an urgent need to elaborate the “appropriate international procedures within the framework of the UN” which were recommended, but left unspecified, when the Convention was negotiated. Since then, the idea of using a consultative committee of experts under UN chairmanship has been accepted in other disarmament-related treaties. This device has the advantage of making the Security Council a long-stop rather than the wicket-keeper which the present all-or-nothing method of complaint would have it be. Unless a consensus on the role of a consultative committee (whether under that name or another) can be reached at the Review Conference — something which can be done without needing to amend the Convention, and whether or not the Convention really is being broken, nagging doubts … fanned by occasional stories in the press, will continue to debilitate the Convention as its credibility is diminished.’ This paper was published in ADIU Report, II.1 (March 1980) pp. 6–7, published by the University of Sussex Armament and Disarmament Information Unit.
Julian Perry Robinson, ‘East-West Fencing at Geneva’, Nature, 284/5755 (3 April 1980) p. 393.
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© 1988 Nicholas A. Sims
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Sims, N.A. (1988). Sweden’s Campaign at the First Review Conference. In: The Diplomacy of Biological Disarmament. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08733-4_8
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