ABSTRACT
The role of the minor powers in Committee of the Conference on Disarmament (CCD) is really irreplaceable. This chapter offers, as an example, the role that the non-nuclear powers have played in reaching a final accord on a treaty for banning biological weapons: their action is evident if one only compares the initial draft treaty prepared by the United States and Soviet Union with the final draft as negotiated with the help of the minor powers and approved by the United Nations General Assembly. The CCD has recently concentrated much of its attention on the problem of banning chemical weapons. During earlier years there had been much insistence, especially on the part of the socialist delegations and also of some non-aligned ones, that chemical weapons and biological weapons should be dealt with together, and that both should be banned by the same treaty.
