Editor’s Note
Biological warfare encompasses a substantial aggregation of threats by divergent means that the world faces. Unlike the use of nuclear weapons in World War II, the use of biological warfare during the Great Wars has received little attention. A wide range of agents can be used discreetly, at least initially, to cause lasting damage. The article provides a comprehensive view of biological warfare in two parts. This is the first part.
“Weapons of mass destruction are the greatest threat to life on earth. Biological weapons are often called the poor man’s atomic bomb”
– William Shawcross
Global Geo-political Power Equilibrium and Security Environment in Flux: Overview of Biological Warfare Threat
We live in a geo-politically transforming world, with global power equations in flux, forcing nations to engage 24×7 in cooperation, competition persistently, and even conflict with each other. This instability cracked open the security stability, which has been held due to a unipolar configuration. Fault lines within and between nations suddenly widen, causing many new long-drawn-out conflicts (even in the developed world, such as Ukraine). Instances of nuclear brinkmanship without any agreements/safeguards are rising, which could lead to Armageddon.
While the potential global threat and disastrous consequences of biological warfare (BW) were known to the domain and few security experts, this threat has come to the forefront and greater scrutiny ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic went everywhere, from remote Antarctic research stations to isolated Amazonian tribes; it raged through nursing homes and aircraft carriers; it levelled the vulnerable, frontline workers and heads of state alike.
The COVID-induced mind-boggling numbers of human fatalities and casualties, its spiralling and continuing destructive potential (evolving mutations), and the consequences to the global economy and way of life have clearly illustrated that the biological threat can be even more devastating than nuclear because they can persist, propagate and spread through a population globally.
Unfortunately, the existing agreements/conventions, especially the Biological Warfare Convention (BWC), signed and ratified almost universally (183 nations), are widely acknowledged but lack compliance monitoring and verification mechanisms to make it far from adequate in controlling biological weapons (BW). This two-part article examines the emerging threat of BW, international protocols, and its impact on the global stage, particularly in India.
BW: A Generic Sketch and Characteristics
- Biological Warfare: Warfare involves the use of biological weapons/germ warfare, which is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war.
- Biological Weapons: Also termed biological threat agents or biological weapon agents (BWA) are living organisms or replicating entities (viruses not universally ‘alive’). Entomological (insect) warfare is a subtype of BW. The WHO describes biological weapons as “microorganisms like viruses, bacteria, fungi, or other toxins that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants”.
- Bioterrorism:Terrorism that involves the intentional release or dissemination of BWA. Success is defined by the measure of societal disruption and panic and not necessarily by the sheer number of casualties.
- Bio-crime: Bio-crime implies the use of a biological agent(s) to kill or make ill, motivated by revenge or the desire for monetary gain by extortion rather than by political, ideological, religious or other beliefs.
- Agro-Terrorism: Bioterrorism used to cause significant economic losses by infecting livestock or crops or contaminating buildings. Outbreaks of diseases such as foot and mouth disease, rinderpest, and Newcastle disease led to the loss of the nation’s disease-free status and subsequent bans on the export of animals, meat, and derived products, causing significant economic losses.
- Genetic Engineering: Genetic engineering is the process of human intervention to transfer functional genes (DNA) between two biological organisms. In the BW/BT context, genes are manipulated to create new pathogenic characteristics (increased survivability, infectivity, virulence, drug resistance, etc).
Biological Weapon Agents (BWA): Characteristics and Suitability; Impact of Biotechnology
BWA is characterised by low visibility, high potency, substantial accessibility and relatively easy delivery. They are unconventional weapons delivered by unconventional means like aerosol sprays [most effective and most probable to be used because of their particle size (1-5µm), which most efficiently penetrates target (air sacs of lung)], food and water contamination, conventional explosive munitions or by covert injections. Because of their concealed delivery, easy transportation and difficult identification, they are readily adaptable for terrorist operations or to gain political advantages.
Detection requires recognising clinical syndromes associated with various BWA—diagnoses made on clinical grounds and investigations. Protective measures should be implemented immediately (if a warning is received) once agent use is suspected. Confirmation of diagnosis, emergency medical treatment and decontamination are performed in rapid sequence.
- Classification of BWA: The BW agents can be classified as:
- Bacteria: Anthrax, Plague, Brucellosis, Cholera, Clostridium perf toxin, Staph enterotoxin B, Melioidosis, Tularemia known as rabbit fever.
- Virus: Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Haemorrhagic fever, smallpox, Rift Valley fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus.
- Fungus: Trichothecene Mycotoxin.
- Rickettsia: Q Fever.
- Miscellaneous: Saxitoxin is a paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) found in contaminated shellfish, Ricin (cytotoxin derived from caster bean mesh).
- Environmental Detection: Detection systems for BWA developed in a few countries, including India, are called biological integrated detection systems (BIDS).
- Biotechnology and BW: Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve global health. It is used for healing and enhances energy and food production. Concurrently, biotechnology has made BW more effective. Genetic engineering boosts horizontal gene transfer to unrelated species and creates new pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance among pathogens. WHO tabulates a minimum of 30 new diseases, including AIDS, Ebola, and Hepatitis C. AI boosts biotech (especially genetic), making lab research and testing available to many, with both humanitarian and fearful consequences.
Historical Background: Use of BW
The statistics of BW are difficult to assess due to several confounding factors: difficulties in verification, allegations for propaganda purposes, lack of pertinent microbiological or epidemiological data, and incidence of naturally occurring endemic or epidemic diseases during hostilities.
BW is as old as civilisation. The history of warfare and the history of disease are unquestionably interwoven. Disease and non-battle injury have accounted for more deaths and loss of combat capability than from actual battle in the war itself. To cite a few examples: Scythian archers infected their arrows by dipping them in decomposing bodies or blood mixed with manure during 400 BC; in 190 BC, Hannibal won the battle of Eurymedan by firing earthen vessels full of venomous snakes into enemy ships; in the 18th century, British distributed smallpox infected blankets to native Americans to create transmission of disease. Germans developed anthrax, glanders, cholera, and a wheat fungus for use as BW during the First World War. The US, UK, Russia and China have continued research on various offensive biological weapons like anthrax and botulinum toxin. Terrorist organisations have been users of biological agents, mostly by contaminating food and water.
China, officially, is the only nation whose people have suffered BW attacks during the war, using plague, anthrax and syphilis. Prior to and during World War II, the Japanese established highly secret and extensive programmes of BW throughout China. The now-infamous Unit 731 conducted barbaric experiments upon thousands of living human beings, called the “factories of death”. In addition, large-scale field tests throughout China were conducted. After the war, the US authorities made a secret deal with Japanese perpetrators, granting them immunity from war crimes prosecution. The purpose was to monopolize the scientific data gained through inhuman human experimentation to advance the United States’ own BW programme.
Lt Gen PR Kumar (Retd)
(To be continued in Part II – Biological Warfare: Convention, Emerging Trends and India’s Role.)
