The Soviet Union S Invisible Weapons Of Mass Destruction

This book focuses on Biopreparat, the Soviet agency created in 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated biological warfare programme the world has ever seen. At its height, Biopreparat employed more than 30,000 personnel and incorporated an enormous network embracing military-focused research institutes, design centres, biowarfare pilot facilities and dual-use production plants. The secret network pursued major offensive R&D programmes, which sought to use genetic engineering techniques to create microbial strains resistant to antibiotics and with wholly new and unexpected pathogenic properties. During the mid-1980s, Biopreparat increased in size and political importance and also emerged as a major civil biopharmaceutical player in the USSR. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an acute struggle for control of Biopreparat’s most valuable assets took place and the network was eventually broken-up and control of its facilities transferred to a myriad of state agencies and private companies.

This book focuses on Biopreparat, the Soviet agency created in 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated biological warfare programme the world has ever seen. At its height, Biopreparat employed more than 30,000 personnel and incorporated an enormous network embracing military-focused research institutes, design centres, biowarfare pilot facilities and dual-use production plants. The secret network pursued major offensive R&D programmes, which sought to use genetic engineering techniques to create microbial strains resistant to antibiotics and with wholly new and unexpected pathogenic properties. During the mid-1980s, Biopreparat increased in size and political importance and also emerged as a major civil biopharmaceutical player in the USSR. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an acute struggle for control of Biopreparat's most valuable assets took place and the network was eventually broken-up and control of its facilities transferred to a myriad of state agencies and private companies. Anthony Rimmington is a former Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University's Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, UK. He has published widely on the civil life sciences sector in the post-Soviet states and on the USSR's offensive biological warfare programme, including The Soviet Union's Agricultural Biowarfare Programme: Ploughshares to Swords (Palgrave, 2021).

Imagine a hot zone in which Ebola is being spliced--using the latest techniques of genetic engineering--with smallpox, the most infectious disease known to man. Now imagine that cocktail is meant for you. For fifty years, while the world stood in terror of a nuclear war, Russian scientists hidden in heavily guarded secret cities refined and stockpiled a new kind of weapon of mass destruction--an invisible weapon that would strike in silence and could not be traced. It would leave hundreds of thousands dead in its wake and would continue to spread devastation long after its release. The scientists were bioweaponeers, working to perfect the tools of a biological Armageddon. They called it their Manhattan Project. It was the deadliest and darkest secret of the cold war. What you are about to read has never before been made public. Ken Alibek began his career as a doctor wanting to save lives and ended up running the Soviet biological weapons program--a secret military empire masquerading as a pharmaceutical company. At its peak, the program employed sixty thousand people at over one hundred facilities. Seven reserve mobilization plants were on permanent standby, ready to produce hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, smallpox, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, to name only a few of the toxic agents bred in Soviet labs. Almost every government ministry was implicated, including the Academy of Sciences and the KGB. Biohazard is a terrifying, fast-paced account of tests and leaks, accidents and disasters in the labs, KGB threats and assassinations. The book is full of revelations--evidence of biowarfare programs in Cuba and India, actual deployments at Stalingrad andin Afghanistan, experiments with mood-altering agents, a contingency plan to attack major American cities, and the true story behind the mysterious anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk. But beyond these is a twisted world of lies and mirrors, and the riveting parable of the greatest perversion of science in history. No one knows the actual capabilities of biological weapons better than Dr. Alibek. Many of the scientists who worked with him have been lured away from low-paying Russian labs to rogue regimes and terrorist groups around the world. In our lifetime, we will most likely see a terrorist attack using biological weapons on an American city. Biohazard tells us--in chilling detail--what to expect and what we can do. Not since Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon has there been such a book--a report from inside the belly of the beast.

The first accessible reference to cover the history, context, current issues, and key concepts surrounding biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. A collection of information on everything from aerosols to zones of peace, these two volumes cover historical background, technology, and strategic implications of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, thus providing facts, terms, and context needed to participate in contemporary policy debate. This encyclopedia is the only comprehensive reference dedicated to the three types of weapons of mass destruction. With over 500 entries arranged alphabetically, volume one covers biological and chemical weapons, while volume two focuses on nuclear weapons. Experts from eight countries cover issues related to these weapons, policies, strategies, technologies, delivery vehicles, arms control concepts, treaties, and key historical figures and locations. Entries are written to make difficult concepts easy to understand by cutting through military and scientific jargon. Students, lay readers, scientists, and government policy makers are provided with the broad range of information needed to place today's policy discussions in proper strategic or historical context.

This book focuses upon the secret agricultural biological warfare programme codenamed Ekologiya – which was pursued by the Soviet Union from 1958 through to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. It was the largest offensive agricultural biowarfare project the world has ever seen and Soviet anti-crop and anti-livestock weapons had the capability to inflict enormous damage on Western agriculture. Beginning in the early 1970s, there was a new focus within the Soviet agricultural biowarfare programme on molecular biology and the development of genetically modified agents. A key characteristic of the Ekologiya project was the creation of mobilization production facilities. These ostensibly civil manufacturing plants incorporated capacity for production of biowarfare agents in wartime emergency. During the 1990s-2000s, the counter-proliferation efforts undertaken by the US and UK played a major role in preventing the transfer of Ekologiya scientists, technologies and pathogens to Iran and other countries of potential proliferation concern. Anthony Rimmington is a former Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University’s Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies, UK. He has published widely on the civil life sciences sector in the post-Soviet states and on the Soviet Union’s offensive biological warfare programme, including Stalin’s Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare.

Is globalization beyond human control? In this thought-provoking text, the myths and mantras of this apparently irresistible force are challenged and dissembled. By examining a number of fundamental questions, the contributors put forward a radical reform agenda for global governance. Can the global multilateral system be democratic? Are security and economic concerns separable? Can the development of a global civil society contribute to effective global governance? An important and wide ranging study, this book will be essential reading for graduates and researchers in international relations.

The threat of biological weapons has never attracted as much public attention as in the past five years. Yet there has been little historical analysis of such weapons over the past half-century. Deadly Cultures sets out to fill this gap by analyzing the historical developments since 1945 and addressing three central issues: why states have continued or begun programs for acquiring biological weapons, why states have terminated biological weapons programs, and how states have demonstrated that they have truly terminated their biological weapons programs.

Biological Threats in the 21st Century offers a fresh understanding of contemporary biological threats to national security. Readers are introduced to the politics, people, science and historical roots of contemporary biological threats through up-to-date, rigorous and accessible chapters written by leading academics and supplemented by expert point-of-view contributions and interviews. The book provides inspiration and resources for students and researchers, as well as policy makers in government, the public policy sector and the wider community. It is particularly pertinent for those interested in biological disarmament, non-proliferation, counterterrorism and health security. Contents:Editor's Introduction: The Politics, People, Science and Historical Roots (Filippa Lentzos)Crossing the Normative Barrier: Japan's Biological Warfare in China in World War II (Jeanne Guillemin)Past Proliferators:The British, United States and Canadian Biological Warfare Programs (Brian Balmer & John Ellis van Courtland Moon)Point of View: Open-Air Biowarfare Testing: American and British Experiences (Leonard A Cole)The Soviet Biological Warfare Program (Jens H Kuhn & Milton Leitenberg)Point of View: Life Inside the Soviet Bioweapons Program (Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley)The Iraqi Biological Warfare Program (Tim Trevan)Point of View: Hunting Saddam's Biological Weapons: A First-Hand Account (Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack)The South African Biological Warfare Program (Alastair Hay)Point of View: Open Secrets: 'Truth Telling' and Transitional Justice in Revealing Biowarfare Programs (Chandré Gould)Bioweapons in Today's Context :RISE, the Rajneeshees, Aum Shinrikyo and Bruce Ivins (W Seth Carus)Point of View: Inside the Mind of a Bioterrorist (Toby Ewin)Aftershocks of the 2001 Anthrax Attacks (Kathleen M Vogel)Point of View: The Threat of Misuse (Gigi Kwik Gronvall)Searching for Cures or Creating Pandemics in the Lab? (Nancy D Connell & Brian Rappert)Point of View: Dangerous Life Sciences Research (David R Franz)Ebola: From Public Health Crisis to National Security Threat (Nicholas G Evans)Point of View: Building a Sustainable Biodefense Industry (Jacob Thorup Cohn)Quandaries in Contemporary Biodefense Research (Gregory D Koblentz)Disarmament and Non-Proliferation:The Traditional Tools of Biological Arms Control and Disarmament (Marie Isabelle Chevrier & Alex Spelling)Witness Seminar: Origins of the Biological Weapons Convention (Jeanne Guillemin, Matthew Meselson, Julian Perry Robinson & Nicholas Sims)Interview: Unconventional Weapons and Activist Scientists (Steven Rose & Filippa Lentzos)Point of View: Responsible Science: Strategies for Engaging Key Stakeholders (Jo L Husbands)Interview: International Security and Counter-Terrorism (Trevor Smith & Filippa Lentzos)Point of View: The Front Lines of Biological Weapons Non-Proliferation (Melissa Finley & Jennifer Gaudioso)Roundtable: The Future of Biothreat Governance (Iris Hunger, Jez Littlewood, Caitriona McLeish, Piers Millett & Ralf Trapp) Readership: Students and researchers, as well as policy makers in government, the public policy sector and the wider community. It is particularly pertinent for those interested in biological disarmament, non-proliferation, counterterrorism and health security.