DOCSLIB.ORG

The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program Occasional Paper No. 9 The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program Edited by Jonathan B. Tucker Raymond A. Zilinskas Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project MONTEREY INSTITUTE CENTER FOR NONPROLIFERATION STUDIES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES THE CENTER FOR NONPROLIFERATION STUDIES The mission of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) is to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction by training the next generation of nonproliferation specialists and disseminating timely information and analysis. Dr. William C. Potter is the director of CNS, which has a staff of over 60 full-time personnel and approximately 65 student research assistants, with offices in Monterey, CA; Washington, DC; and Almaty, Kazakhstan. CNS is the largest nongovernmental organization in the United States devoted exclusively to research and training on nonproliferation issues. CNS gratefully acknowledges the support of the following funders and thanks them for their commitment to our mission: the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Center for Global Partnership, the Compton Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the HKH Foundation, the Japan - United States Friendship Commission, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John Merck Fund, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Ploughshares Fund, the Prospect Hill Foundation, and the Scherman Foundation. For more information on the projects and publications of CNS, contact: Center for Nonproliferation Studies Monterey Institute of International Studies 460 Pierce Street Monterey, California 93940 USA Tel: 831.647.4154 Fax: 831.647.3519 E-mail: [email protected] Internet Web Site: http://cns.miis.edu CNS Publications Staff Editor-in-Chief Leonard S. Spector Editor Scott Parrish Policy recommendations, statements of fact, and opinions expressed in this Occasional Paper are the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply the endorsement of the editor, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, or the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Authors’ institutional affiliations are noted only for the purpose of identification. ISBN 1-885350-03-1 Monterey Institute of International Studies, July 2002 OCCASIONAL PAPERS AVAILABLE FROM CNS No. 1 Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan: Past, Present, and Future, by Gulbarshyn Bozheyeva, Yerlan Kunakbayev, and Dastan Yeleukenov, June 1999. No. 2 A History of Ballistic Missile Development in the DPRK, by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., November 1999. No. 3 Nonproliferation Regimes at Risk, Michael Barletta and Amy Sands, eds., November 1999. No. 4 Proliferation Challenges and Nonproliferation Opportunities for New Administrations, Michael Barletta, ed., September 2000. No. 5 International Perspectives on Ballistic Missile Proliferation and Defenses (Special Joint Series on Missile Issues with the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies, University of Southampton, U.K.), March 2001. No. 6 WMD Threats 2001: Critical Choices for the Bush Administration, Michael Barletta, ed., May 2001. No. 7 Missile Proliferation and Defences: Problems and Prospects, (Special Joint Series on Missile Issues with the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies, University of Southampton, U.K.), May 2001. No. 8 After 9/11: Preventing Mass-Destruction Terrorism and Weapons Proliferation, Michael Barletta, ed., May 2002. No. 9 The 1971 Smallpox Epidemic in Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet Biological Warfare Program, Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas, eds., July 2002. CNS Occasional Papers are available online at: http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/opapers.htm For print or multiple copies, please contact: Scott Parrish, Editor Center for Nonproliferation Studies Monterey Institute of International Studies 460 Pierce Street Monterey, California 93940 USA E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 831.647.6654 Fax: 831.647.3519 CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Foreword iii by Bakyt B. Atshabar Introduction and Analysis Introduction 1 by Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas An Epidemiological Analysis of the 1971 Smallpox Outbreak in Aralsk, Kazakhstan 12 by Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D. 1971 Smallpox Report Report on Measures Taken to Contain and Eradicate the Smallpox Outbreak Locale in the City of Aralsk (September/October, 1971) 22 by E. Sarynov, Deputy Minister of Health of the Kazakh SSR; B. Kulmakhanov, Director of the Outbreak Containment Locale; and Z. Makatov, Chief of Staff Report on Measures Taken to Contain and Eradicate the Smallpox Outbreak Locale in the City of Aralsk, Part II 55 by E. Sarynov, Deputy Minister of Health of the Kazakh SSR; and B. Kulmakhanov, Director of the Outbreak Containment Locale Autopsy Reports 60 by I. Borisov ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Editing this occasional paper was a difficult undertaking because its subject combines issues related to public health, security, the natural sciences, and the physical sciences. The assistance of many persons made the task easier, and we take this opportunity to acknowledge their contributions. Had it not been for Dr. Bakyt B. Atshabar, this occasional paper would not have been possible. We thank him for having presented us with the original Soviet-era reports. The excellent translation provided by Ms. Rosa Kavenoki and Mr. Michael Gillen enabled us to understand what we were dealing with. Ms. Elena Bloomstein of Sandia National Laboratories served as interpreter in the extensive interviews that Dr. Zelicoff conducted with some of the victims of the smallpox outbreak, a difficult task given the unpleasant memories he asked his interviewees to share. Dr. Sonia Ben Ouagrham played a key role by acting as a liaison with Dr. Atshabar and by providing photographs of the Aral Sea region. Thanks to Mr. Milton Leitenberg who helped us by making available special information about the former Soviet biological warfare program. We are grateful to Dr. Richard Pilch and Ms. Kara Yermukan for their reviews of the official report and Dr. Zelicoff’s analysis. We also appreciated the rapid publication of this occasional paper made possible by the work of Dr. Scott Parrish and Ms. Kimberly McCloud. CNS Director Dr. William Potter and Deputy Director Dr. Amy Sands provided consistent support of this project and our efforts. Jonathan B. Tucker and Raymond A. Zilinskas June 2002 FOREWORD by Bakyt B. Atshabar Director, The Mosgut Aikimbaev Kazakh Scientific Center of Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections, Almaty, Kazakhstan The military-industrial complex of the massive die-offs were officially attributed to former Soviet Union used the territory of outbreaks of pasteurellosis, a disease caused Kazakhstan as a testing ground for various by the bacterium Pasteurella haemolytica. Yet types of weapons of mass destruction, they were almost certainly the result of open- including nuclear weapons at Semipalatinsk. air BW testing on Vozrozhdeniye Island. It is Soviet officials perpetuated the myth that the also known that during the late 1980s, large test sites were harmless and categorically quantities of anthrax spores that had been denied any adverse effects on the Kazakhstani mass-produced and stockpiled in Russia were people, whose deteriorating health they transported to the island for decontamination sought to explain as a consequence of natural and burial. factors. In fact, the grave environmental and There are conflicting opinions on the health effects of nuclear weapons testing at dangers posed today by the legacy of BW Semipalatinsk are now clear. Less well known testing on Vozrozhdeniye Island. Experts are the consequences of biological weapons from the former Soviet military-industrial testing on the territory of Kazakhstan. complex who worked on the island contend From 1936 to 1992, Vozrozhdeniye that the extermination of rodents from testing Island, an island in the western part of the areas prior to the release of live BW agents, Aral Sea whose territory is divided between and subsequent clean-up operations, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the major completely removed any danger that proving ground in the Soviet Union for the infectious agents would persist at the testing open-air testing of biological warfare (BW) grounds. Soviet officials also counted on the agents. According to information provided by intense solar radiation during the summer Z. A. Rakhmatulin, the former chief of staff at months to disinfect the testing grounds after the test site during the 1980s, and by G. L. they were closed down. Lepyoshkin, the former general director of the Other experts disagree. Ultraviolet National Center for Biotechnology in radiation can kill only exposed, living Stepnogorsk, a variety of BW agents were microbes and viruses—not bacterial and tested on Vozrozhdeniye Island, including the fungal spores that persist beneath the surface microbial pathogens that cause plague, of the soil. Moreover, because of the anthrax, Q-fever, smallpox, tularemia, and extensive downwind range of the tests, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, as well as the possibility that some of the microbes botulinum toxin. Some of the pathogens could have infected insect or animal hosts tested in aerosol form were genetically (such as fleas or rodents) that serve as modified strains that produce atypical disease persistent reservoirs of disease, infectious processes and are resistant to existing agents may have spread throughout the medications, potentially complicating territory of Vozrozhdeniye Island. diagnosis and treatment. Today it is impossible to guarantee with The environmental consequences
Load more

Recommended publications
  • REFOCUSING NATO's INTELLIGENCE OUTLOOK TOWARDS BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
    NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS REFOCUSING NATO's INTELLIGENCE OUTLOOK TOWARDS BIOLOGICAL WARFARE by Claro William Villareal September, 1996 Thesis Advisor: Rodney Kennedy-Minott Second Reader: Robert E. Looney Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Thesis V682 -* h,/, . -'OSTGRADU' MONTEREY CA W REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing date sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services. Directorate for Information Operations and Reports. 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway. Suite 1 204. Arlington. VA 22202-4302. and to the Office of Management and Budget. Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-01 88) Washington DC 20503 1 AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) REPORT DATE REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED September 1996 Master's Thesis TITLE AND SUBTITLE FUNDING NUMBERS Refocusing NATO's Intelligence Outlook Towards Biological Warfare 6. AUTHOR Claro William Villareal 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) PERFORMING Naval Postgraduate School ORGANIZATION Monterey CA 93943-5000 REPORT NUMBER SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY REPORT NUMBER 1 1 . SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. 12a. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT 12b.
    [Show full text]
  • THE CBW CONVENTIONS BULLETIN News, Background and Comment on Chemical and Biological Weapons Issues
    THE CBW CONVENTIONS BULLETIN News, Background and Comment on Chemical and Biological Weapons Issues ISSUE NO. 61 SEPTEMBER 2003 Quarterly Journal of the Harvard Sussex Program on CBW Armament and Arms Limitation NON-LETHAL WEAPONS, THE CWC AND THE BWC It is hard to think of any issue having as much potential for including short-term memory impairment, breathing jeopardizing the long-term future of the Chemical and difficulty and flaccid paralysis! One of these chemicals is Biological Weapons Conventions as does the interest in fentanyl, which was the basis for the knockout gas used by creating special exemptions for so-called non-lethal Russian special forces to rescue several hundred hostages chemical weapons! The First CWC Review Conference in the Moscow theatre siege of October 2002! The US Army earlier this year was opportunity to address the issue Chemical Corps was studying fentanyl and related chemicals constructively! But, save in the national statements of New as candidate disabling weapons as early as May 1963! Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, the OPCW chose not to There are innumerable other kinds of receptors in the do so! In the programme of Review-Conference follow-up brain, most of which we know almost nothing about! Of the work that is now getting under way, there is no mention of few that have been investigated, we do know that some can disabling chemicals, not even tear gas, still less the so-called mediate temporary blindness, for example, or can cause calmatives and other such incapacitating agents in which submissiveness,
    [Show full text]
  • David Christopher Kelly, 1944-2003
    David Christopher Kelly, 1944-2003. We mourn the passing of David Kelly, a modest and good man, an internationally recognised British authority on biological weapons, and a valued friend of the Harvard Sussex Program. He died on 17 July 2003. He was then Senior Adviser to the Directorate of Counter Proliferation and Arms Control of the UK Ministry of Defence and to the Counter Proliferation Department of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He had become a member of the country’s Scientific Civil Service in 1973 upon joining, as a molecular virologist, what is now the National Environment Research Council Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford. There he contributed much to the field of biological control applicable in agriculture, specifically the use of viruses to attack insect pests. In July 1984 he was recruited by the Ministry of Defence to work at what was then the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down as head of microbiology. He directed the research into improved defensive measures against biological warfare that, during the 1991 Kuwait war, enhanced the protection of UK forces against possible Iraqi biological weapons. He also led the successful decontamination of Gruinard Island, which had been a proving ground for anthrax weapons during the second world war. In 1989 he first became involved as a technical expert in the interpretation of the disturbing data emanating from the Soviet Union, chiefly via defectors such as Vladimir Pasechnik, whom he interviewed early on, that pointed to covert Soviet violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. In 1990, an initially very private ‘trilateral process’ had been set in motion by the three co-depositaries of the Convention – the governments of the UK, the USA and the USSR — that sought to resolve the situation through on-site inspections in the three countries.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Future-Of-Immortality-Remaking-Life
    The Future of Immortality Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology Tom Boellstorff and Bill Maurer, Series Editors This series presents innovative work that extends classic ethnographic methods and questions into areas of pressing interest in technology and economics. It explores the varied ways new technologies combine with older technologies and cultural understandings to shape novel forms of subjectivity, embodiment, knowledge, place, and community. By doing so, the series demonstrates the relevance of anthropological inquiry to emerging forms of digital culture in the broadest sense. Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond by Stefan Helmreich with contributions from Sophia Roosth and Michele Friedner Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society and Culture edited by Benjamin Peters Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno- Politics and Protest after Apartheid by Antina von Schnitzler Everyday Sectarianism in Urban Lebanon: Infrastructures, Public Services, and Power by Joanne Randa Nucho Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno- Idealism by Christo Sims Biomedical Odysseys: Fetal Cell Experiments from Cyberspace to China by Priscilla Song Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming by T. L. Taylor Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India by Lilly Irani The Future of Immortality: Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russia by Anya Bernstein The Future of Immortality Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russia Anya Bernstein
    [Show full text]
  • From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology
    From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by Wynand Albertus de Beer submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of D Litt et Phil in the subject Religious Studies at the University of South Africa Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen February 2015 Dedicated with grateful acknowledgements to my supervisor, Professor Danie Goosen, for his wise and patient guidance and encouragement throughout my doctoral research, and to the examiners of my thesis for their helpful comments and suggestions. From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by W.A. de Beer Degree: D Litt et Phil Subject: Religious Studies Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen Summary: This thesis deals with the relation of Hellenic philosophy to evolutionary biology. The first part entails an explication of Hellenic cosmology and metaphysics in its traditional understanding, as the Western component of classical Indo-European philosophy. It includes an overview of the relevant contributions by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists, focussing on the structure and origin of both the intelligible and sensible worlds. Salient aspects thereof are the movement from the transcendent Principle into the realm of Manifestation by means of the interaction between Essence and Substance; the role of the Logos, being the equivalent of Plato’s Demiurge and Aristotle’s Prime Mover, in the cosmogonic process; the interaction between Intellect and Necessity in the formation of the cosmos; the various kinds of causality contributing to the establishment of physical reality; and the priority of being over becoming, which in the case of living organisms entails the primacy of soul over body.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia: Tracing the Histories Of
    The Making of Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia: Tracing the histories of an ambiguous concept in a contested land Dissertation Zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt der Philosophischen Fakultät I Sozialwissenschaften und historische Kulturwissenschaften der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, von Herrn Simon Schlegel geb. am 23. April 1983 in Rorschach (Schweiz) Datum der Verteidigung 26. Mai 2016 Gutachter: PD Dr. phil. habil. Dittmar Schorkowitz, Dr. Deema Kaneff, Prof. Dr. Gabriela Lehmann-Carli Contents Deutsche Zusammenfassung ...................................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Questions and hypotheses ......................................................................................................................... 4 1.2. History and anthropology, some methodological implications ................................................. 6 1.3. Locating the field site and choosing a name for it ........................................................................ 11 1.4. A brief historical outline .......................................................................................................................... 17 1.5. Ethnicity, natsional’nost’, and nationality: definitions and translations ............................
    [Show full text]
  • Between Holy Russia and a Monkey: Darwin's Russian Literary and Philosophical Critics
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2019 Between Holy Russia and a Monkey: Darwin's Russian Literary and Philosophical Critics Brendan G. Mooney Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Recommended Citation Mooney, B. G.(2019). Between Holy Russia and a Monkey: Darwin's Russian Literary and Philosophical Critics. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5484 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BETWEEN HOLY RUSSIA AND A MONKEY: DARWIN’S RUSSIAN LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICS by Brendan G. Mooney Bachelor of Arts University of South Carolina, 2012 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2015 Master of Arts Middlebury College, 2018 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Judith Kalb, Major Professor Alexander Ogden, Committee Member James Barilla, Committee Member Jeffrey Dudycha, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Brendan G. Mooney, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To the women who made this dissertation possible: Judith Kalb, Alice Geary, Lynne Geary, Alice Clemente, Megan Stark, Katherine Mark, Marilyn Dwyer, and, finally, Shannon, Eleanor, and Caroline Mooney. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project began, little did I know, after reading Lev Tolstoy’s 1889 novella The Kreutzer Sonata.
    [Show full text]
  • Biologiset Aseet Sodankäynnin Ja Terrorismin Välineenä
    31 BIOLOGISET ASEET SODANKÄYNNIN JA TERRORISMIN VÄLINEENÄ Akateemikko Jorina K. Miettinen .JOHDANTO Myrkkyjä ja tauteja on käytetty sodankäynnin välineinä ilmeisesti aikojen alusta. Historiassa on jo antiikin ajoilta tietoa kaivojen myrkyttämisestä ar­ senikilla tai tautiin kuolleiden eläinten raadoilla. Kuuluisa on keskiajalla rai­ vonnut "musta rutto" (paiserutto, Y. pestis), jonka väitetään saaneen alkunsa tataarien singottua katapultilla ruttoon kuolleiden potilaiden ruumiita piirit­ tämänsä Kaffan (nyk. Feodosia) kaupungin muurien yli Krimillä v. 1346. Sieltä laivoilla paenneet asukkaat toivat sen Kreikkaan mistä se levisi koko Eurooppaan tappaen n. 25 miljoonaa ihmistä eli arviolta kolmasosan maan­ osan väestöstä (1). KUNNIATTOMAT ASEET Kaikkina aikoina myrkkyjen ja tautien käyttö sodassa on herättänyt inhoa ihmisissä, myös valtion johtajissa ja sotapäälliköissä. Vanhat roomalaiset sanoivat, "Armis bella, non venenis geri!", so. "Käykää sotaa aseilla, ei myr­ kyillä!", ja ensimmäisessä maailmansodassa tapahtuneen laajan kaasujen käy• tönjälkeen maailman yleinen mielipide katsoi että myrkkyjen ja tautien käyttö aseena on rikos ihmiskuntaa vastaan. Syntyi kaasu- ja bakteerisodankäynnin kieltävä "Geneven kaasuprotokolla" v. 1925. Se ei kuitenkaan kieltänyt ko. aseiden valmistamista ja varastoimista. Mikroobi- ja toksiiniaseista saatiin v. 1972 aikaan täyskielto (ilman val­ vontasopimusta) , joka astui voimaan v. 1975. Kemiallisista aseista saatiin v. 1993 vastaava täyskieltosopimus, joka astui voimaan v. 1995. Siihen liittyy myös erittäin
    [Show full text]
  • The Trilateral Agreement: Lessons for Biological Weapons Verification
    6 The Trilateral Agreement: lessons for biological weapons verification David C. Kelly ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ In late 1989, Dr Vladimir Pasechnik, a key research director of what turned out to be a clandestine Soviet biological weapons () facility, defected to the United Kingdom. This eventually led to an attempt by the and the United States to end the secrecy surrounding the Soviet programme, which was in violation of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (), and to ensure that all such activities in the successor state, Russia, were verifiably ended. This effort was formalised in the so-called Trilateral Agreement on biological weapons concluded by the , the and Russia in 1992. The Trilateral Agreement failed dramatically, as Russia proved unwilling to ack- nowledge and fully account for either the former Soviet programme or the activities that it had inherited and continued to engage in. This included refusing access by American and British inspectors to its military biological sites. The lessons learned during the process contributed indirectly to the strategy of the Special Commission on Iraq () between 1991 and 1999 in seeking the biological disarmament of Iraq. They were also factored into British thinking on the design of compliance measures for the verification protocol that was being negotiated between 1995 and 2001. The failure of the trilateral initiative has implications for future attempts to design verification procedures for the , the development of confidence-building measures, the conversion to peaceful uses of facilities that were (and may still be) a part of the Russian programme, and the redeployment of biological warfare scien- tists and technicians. It also demonstrated the difficulty of applying traditional arms control principles to dual-use facilities—those capable of being used for both peaceful and military purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Soviet Biological Weapons Program and Its Legacy in Today's
    Occasional Paper 11 The Soviet Biological Weapons Program and Its Legacy in Today’s Russia Raymond A. Zilinskas Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction National Defense University MR. CHARLES D. LUTES Director MR. JOHN P. CAVES, JR. Deputy Director Since its inception in 1994, the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD Center) has been at the forefront of research on the implications of weapons of mass destruction for U.S. security. Originally focusing on threats to the military, the WMD Center now also applies its expertise and body of research to the challenges of homeland security. The Center’s mandate includes research, education, and outreach. Research focuses on understanding the security challenges posed by WMD and on fashioning effective responses thereto. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has designated the Center as the focal point for WMD education in the joint professional military education system. Education programs, including its courses on countering WMD and consequence management, enhance awareness in the next generation of military and civilian leaders of the WMD threat as it relates to defense and homeland security policy, programs, technology, and operations. As a part of its broad outreach efforts, the WMD Center hosts annual symposia on key issues bringing together leaders and experts from the government and private sectors. Visit the center online at http://wmdcenter.ndu.edu. The Soviet Biological Weapons Program and Its Legacy in Today’s Russia Raymond A. Zilinskas Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction Occasional Paper, No. 11 National Defense University Press Washington, D.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Instability and Strategic Crisis
    Global Instability and Strategic Crisis This is a truly important book, one that should be read by policy makers in London and Washington and elsewhere throughout the world. Lucidly written by a distinguished British academic with a strong background in natural science and military technology as well as in the humanities, the text reviews remarkably comprehensively the world outlook and strategic thinking in the aftermath of 9/11. It is also rich in constructive policy proposals for the future. Professor Milton C.Cummings, Jr., Johns Hopkins University, USA Global Instability and Strategic Crisis brings new perspectives to current debates surrounding missile defence and argues that it should have a limited role only. Looking to the future, the author radically extends the customary remit of strategic studies in order to address the new world situation. This book explores the diverse factors—military, scientific, economic, social, ecological and cosmological—bearing upon the quest for stability and peace and anticipates future possibilities. The interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan are both discussed at some length while the Holy Land, Central Southern Africa, Indonesia, China and the Arctic are all seen as foci of special concern in their respective ways. Thematically, the text addresses a raft of topics, among them the redefinition of terror; lethal lasers; internalized arms control; the non- weaponization of space; Guantanamo Bay; regional security pacts; latter-day Marshall Plans; climate change; a ubiquitous urban crisis; instability latent in Western society; a two-tier European Union; and pre-emption doctrine. Salience is given to the military and civil exploitation of space; biowarfare is treated as a singularly serious mass destruction threat.
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Geographers and the Great Patriotic War, 1941E1945: Lev Berg and Andrei Grigor’Ev
    Journal of Historical Geography xxx (2014) 1e10 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Historical Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhg Feature: European Geographers and World War II Soviet geographers and the Great Patriotic War, 1941e1945: Lev Berg and Andrei Grigor’ev Denis J.B. Shaw* and Jonathan D. Oldfield School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK Abstract The significance of the Second World War for Soviet geography was somewhat different from that in much of the West. In the USSR, as a result of the 1917 Russian Revolution and, more particularly, of Joseph Stalin’s ‘Great Turn’ implemented in 1929e1933, geographers were faced with pronounced political and economic challenges of a kind which arguably only confronted most Western geographers with the onset of war. It is therefore impossible to un- derstand the impact of the war for Soviet geography without taking into account this broader context, including events during the turbulent post-war years. The paper will focus on the experiences of two prominent geographers who played a major role in the developments of the era including their responses to the revolutionary circumstances occurring from the late 1920s, their activities and experiences during the war, and the debates and conflicts they engaged in during the post-war crisis. Some of the more significant contrasts with geographical developments in Western countries during these years will be emphasized. Ó 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Keywords: Soviet geography; Andrei Grigor’ev; Lev Berg; USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Geography; Stalin era Towards the end of January, 1947, just three years after the lifting of geographers, especially those working in the Office of Strategic the German blockade of the city by Soviet forces, some 600 or so Services (OSS) in Washington DC.
    [Show full text]