The end of chemical warfare
By 
Patrick Walter2023-07-20T13:29:00
With a final push we might see these terrible weapons disappear from the world in our lifetime
A historic milestone has been passed. All the declared stockpiles of chemical weapons have been eliminated. The threat of industrial-scale chemical warfare that began during the first world war with chlorine, phosgene and sulfur mustard is over (see p8).
When the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was signed 30 years ago, the elimination of chemical weapons must have seemed impossibly far off. It’s not hard to imagine scepticism that this goal could ever be reached. But the fact that more than 70,000 tonnes of these lethal chemical munitions – enough to kill every person on the planet – have been destroyed is a testament to the optimism, even utopianism, of the drafters of the treaty, its signatories and everyone that worked to achieve this.