Elimination of the Chemical Weapons Stockpile of Syria

Trapp, Ralf

doi:10.1093/jcsl/kru002

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…States that are known to be very favourable toward arms control such as Japan, 11 Ireland, Austria and Sweden lead the ranking. The nuclear weapon states (NWS) are ranked at the bottom, similar to states such as Syria, Egypt and Iran that have frequently voiced their opposition to arms restrictions (Crail, 2011; Jones, 1998; Trapp, 2014; Wunderlich et al, 2013). The measure also captures changes over time, for instance Russia’s decline in support after 2010 and the United States’ positional shifts related to changes of leadership.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

External threats and state support for arms control

Risse

2023

Journal of Peace Research

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The successful closure of arms control negotiations today is conditional on the commitment of many more states than during the Cold War. The question of what determines states’ positions on arms control has therefore become increasingly relevant. Multiple scholars have identified external security threats by other states as the key explanatory factor of opposition to arms control, but empirical evidence hereof is so far limited to a small set of cases. Against this backdrop, this article carries out a global examination of the effect of external threats in the form of interstate disputes and rivalries on state support for arms control. This analysis is facilitated by a novel measure of arms control support that combines United Nations General Assembly voting data with manual coding of 1,178 resolutions. Across a variety of model specifications, the results do not show any significant effect of external threats on support for arms control. This article argues that this means either that the two variables are not related at all, or that two opposing mechanisms cancel out each other: arms control not only entails costs, but also benefits for states that face external threats, as it limits both states involved in a rivalry or dispute. Either way, this study challenges the notion that there is a strictly negative relationship between external threats and arms control support and thus contributes to our understanding of arms control and foreign policy making in general.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

External threats and state support for arms control

Risse

2023

Journal of Peace Research

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“…The conflict in Syria, even prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 was extremely damaging to human rights and public health and resulted in 5.6 million refugees, 6 million internally displaced persons, and more than 400,000 people killed (Council on Foreign Relations 2021). Beyond the conventional horrors of war, civilian populations in Syria have suffered the use of irregular weapons such as barrel bombs and weapons of mass destructions (chemical weapons) (Trapp, 2014). Although there have been extremely large outflows of civilian refugees to neighboring countries, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has largely brought these flows to a halt or imposed severe mobility restrictions on transborder refugee flows and movements of refugees in seeking shelter in third party nations (Grothe, 2020).…”

Section: Syria: Brief Conflict Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Biopolitics: Power, Pandemics, and War

Brantly¹,

Brantly²

2023

Orbis

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“…The preparations for the transportation of most of the chemical materials of Syria's stockpile out of the country began immediately after the initial inspection campaign was completed, supported by an Operations Planning Group established by the OPCW to coordinate the support of Member States and the Joint Mission (OPCW 2013d) for the removal and destruction operation. This removal and the decision to destroy the chemical weapons materials outside of Syrian territory were two of several modifications to the rules of the CWC that became necessary under the special circumstances of Syria (Trapp 2014a). The sequence of this operation 5 This resolution also removed any possible doubts about the legal power of some of the elements of the Executive Council decision, given the effect of Article 103 of the UN Charter.…”

Section: The Elimination Of the Syrian Chemical Weapons Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria: Implications and Consequences

Trapp¹

2017

One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences

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Chemical weapons are banned under customary international law, the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The CWC today has achieved near universal adherence; a small number of states, however, remain outside its realm. Syria-until 2013 one of them-was long presumed to possess chemical weapons and in 2012 effectively admitted so. The Syrian civil war always carried the risk that one side or another would use these weapons. Reports to this end began to appear in 2012. In March 2013, following separate requests by Syria and several Western States, the UN Secretary-General began to investigate these allegations. Whilst the investigation team was in Damascus, a large-scale sarin attack was launched on Ghouta, killing hundreds of people. This incident and its subsequent confirmation by the UN team set in motion a series of unprecedented events leading to the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile under strict international control, supported by financial and in-kind assistance by more than 20 countries. But this multilateral effort did not end the use of toxic chemicals in Syria, and OPCW fact-finding missions have since confirmed several cases of chlorine attacks. Also, ISIS/Daesh reportedly has used chemical weapons including chlorine and mustard gas in Syria and Iraq. The paper concludes that it will be important to identify the perpetrators of these attacks and bring them to justice in order to protect the international norm against poison gas.

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Elimination of the Chemical Weapons Stockpile of Syria

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

External threats and state support for arms control

External threats and state support for arms control

Biopolitics: Power, Pandemics, and War

The Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria: Implications and Consequences

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