This short monograph reviews the history of biological warfare (BW) fromprehistory to the present. It covers what we know about the practice of BW andbriefly describes the programs that developed BW weapons based on the bestavailable research. To the extent possible, it primarily draws on the work of historianswho used primary sources, relying where possible on studies specificallyfocused on BW. By broadening our knowledge of BW, such studies have enabledus to write about the topic with more accuracy and detail than could have beendone even a few years ago. This is an overview, not a definitive history. Much about BW remains unknown,either because it is unknowable (due in some cases to the deliberate destructionof records) or because it is knowable only to some people (such as thosewho might have access to classified information) or because of the absence ofacademic research.1 This survey breaks the history of BW into three periods. The first sectionexamines prehistory to 1900—the period before scientific advances proved thatmicroorganisms were the cause of many diseases. Despite many claims to the contrary,resort to BW was exceedingly rare during this era. Readers interested onlyin BW’s modern history can skip this section. The second section looks at the years from 1900 through 1945. This periodsaw the emergence of state BW programs, the employment of biological weaponsin both world wars, and the use of biological agents by nonstate actors, includingcriminals. This period witnessed the most significant resort to BW. It includedthe first organized state campaign to wage BW—sabotage operations organizedby the German government during World War I. It also saw the most extensiveuse—the Japanese attacks in China. Almost all the known victims of BW wereChinese, mostly civilians, who were killed in these operations. This period also sawthe initial efforts to control BW in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which essentiallyprohibited the first use of BW agents.Finally, the third section, covering the period from 1945 to the present, focusesmostly on developments during the Cold War, including descriptions of state BW programs as well as known uses of biological agents by states, terrorists,and criminals. Despite the development of highly sophisticated techniques fordissemination of biological agents by the United States and the Soviet Unionduring the Cold War (the two countries with the largest and most advanced BWprograms ever organized), most of the known programs were small and possessedonly crude dissemination capabilities. The known uses were unsophisticated aswell, essentially no more advanced than what the Germans did during World WarI. This era also saw the negotiation of the 1972 Biological and Toxin WeaponsConvention (BWC). This history focuses on those agents covered by the BWC, which prohibitedweapons disseminating biological agents or toxins. Biological agents are replicatingbiological entities, such as bacteria. Toxins, poisons of biological origin, aresimilar to chemical warfare agents and also have been banned by the ChemicalWeapons Convention. Definitional matters are discussed in more detail in appendix2. Biological agents are referred to by their scientific name. Following scientificpractice, the name is abbreviated after the first mention. Thus, Bacillus anthracis(commonly, but incorrectly, called anthrax), which causes several diseases (includingcutaneous anthrax, inhalational anthrax, and gastrointestinal anthrax), ishereafter called 2 Readers wishing more detailed information should look at the referencescited in the notes. Appendix 1 also provides suggested readings.
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