ABSTRACT
The Gulf War erupted after a period in which there appeared to be a stalemate in conventional arms technology, and it was widely believed that a qualitative breakthrough could not be attained through the use or conventional technology. The case for high-tech weapons may consequently have been overstated, but the broader perception nonetheless remains that a new potential for attaining a strategic and operational edge has been created by developments in the conventional realm. Use of chemical weapons is more than ever likely to entail heavy political costs and risks, and their use is likely to provoke costly retaliation. When the Chemical Weapons Convention was originally envisaged, and after some thinking had gone into the question of verifying it, the US was approached to explore how one actually stored chemical weapons, and to provide specifications of what a typical installation was supposed to look like.
