ABSTRACT
The proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and their means of delivery, has been described by the NATO heads of state and government as ‘a threat to international security and a matter of concern to NATO’. Weapons of Mass Destruction have also been characterized as ‘an asymmetrical counter to the West’s massive superiority in conventional weapons’. Fundamentally ‘weapons of mass destruction compress the amount of time and effort needed to kill’. Although they are all area weapons, they vary enormously in the costs and difficulty of their production, in their destructive effects, and in their military utility. Nuclear weapons, if potentially the most destructive of these weapons are also the most costly and difficult to manufacture. The effects of biological weapons, if effectively dispersed under appropriate meteorological conditions, could spread over a greater area and even exceed the killing power of some low-yield nuclear weapons.
