Fictional rayguns are often depicted in science fiction.
Strange and exotic weapons are a recurring feature in science fiction. In some cases, weapons
first introduced in science fiction have been made a reality; other
science-fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond
the realms of known physical possibility.
At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms—mostly variations on real weapons such as guns and swords. Among the best-known of these are the phaser—used in the Star Trek television series, films, and novels—and the lightsaber and blaster—featured in Star Wars movies, comics, novels, and TV shows.
Besides adding action and entertainment value, weaponry in science fiction sometimes touches on deeper concerns and becomes a theme, often motivated by contemporary issues. One example is science fiction that deals with weapons of mass destruction.
In early science fiction
Weapons
of early science-fiction novels were usually bigger and better versions
of conventional weapons, effectively more advanced methods of
delivering explosives to a target. Examples of such weapons include Jules Verne's "fulgurator" and the "glass arrow" of the Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.
A classic science-fiction weapon, particularly in British and American science-fiction novels and films, is the raygun. A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898).
The discovery of X-rays and radioactivity
in the last years of the 19th century led to an increase in the
popularity of this family of weapons, with numerous examples in the
early 20th century, such as the disintegrator rays of George Griffith's future-war novel The Lord of Labour (1911). Early science-fiction film often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning or large electric arcs.
Wells also prefigured modern armored warfare with his description of tanks in his 1903 short story "The Land Ironclads", and aerial warfare in his 1907 novel The War in the Air.
After the invention of the laser in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science-fiction writers. For instance, characters in the Star Trek pilot episode The Cage (1964) and in the Lost in Space TV series (1965–1968) carried handheld laser weapons.
By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon
became evident, the raygun began to be replaced by similar weapons with
names that better reflected the destructive capabilities of the device.
These names ranged from the generic "pulse rifle" to series-specific weapons, such as the phasers from Star Trek.
In the Warhammer 40,000
franchise, a human faction known as the Imperial Guard has a "lasgun",
which is described as being a handheld laser weapon, as their main
weapon, and larger cannon versions being mounted onto tanks and being
carried around by Space Marines. The elf-like Aeldari, meanwhile, have a special unit called the Swooping Hawks equipped with a "lasblaster".
In the Command & Conquer
video game series, various factions make extensive use of laser and
particle-beam technology. The most notable are Allied units Prism Tank
from Red Alert 2 and Athena Cannon from Red Alert 3, the Nod's Avatar and Obelisk of Light from Tiberium Wars, as well as various units from Generals constructed by USA faction, including their "superweapon" particle cannon.
Weapons using plasma (high-energy ionized gas) have been featured in a number of fictional universes.
Weapons of mass destruction
Nuclear weapons are a staple element in science-fiction novels. The phrase "atomic bomb" predates their existence, and dates back to H. G. Wells' The World Set Free
(1914), when scientists had discovered that radioactive decay implied
potentially limitless energy locked inside of atomic particles (Wells'
atomic bombs were only as powerful as conventional explosives, but would
continue exploding for days on end). Cleve Cartmill predicted a chain reaction-type nuclear bomb in his 1944 science-fiction story "Deadline", which led to the FBI investigating him, due to concern over a potential breach of security on the Manhattan Project.
The use of radiological, biological, and chemical
weapons is another common theme in science fiction. In the aftermath of
World War I, the use of chemical weapons, particularly poison gas, was a
major worry, and was often employed in the science fiction of this
period, for example Neil Bell's The Gas War of 1940 (1931). Robert A. Heinlein's 1940 story "Solution Unsatisfactory" posits radioactive dust
as a weapon that the US develops in a crash program to end World War
II; the dust's existence forces drastic changes in the postwar world. In
The Dalek Invasion of Earth, set in the 22nd century, Daleks are claimed to have invaded Earth after it was bombarded with meteorites and a plague wiped out entire continents.
A subgenre of science fiction, postapocalyptic fiction, uses the aftermath of nuclear or biological warfare as its setting.
The Death Star is the Star Wars
equivalent to a weapon of mass destruction, and as such, might be the
most well-known weapon of mass destruction in science fiction.
Powered armor and fighting suits
The idea of powered armor has appeared in a wide variety of fiction, beginning with E. E. Smith's Lensman series in 1937. One of the most famous early versions was Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers, which can be seen as spawning the entire subgenre concept of military "powered armor", which would be further developed in Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. The Marvel character Iron Man is another noteworthy example. Other examples include the power armor used by the Space Marines and other characters from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k franchise, and the power armor used by the Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout franchise, and the MJOLNIR Armor worn by protagonist Master Chief in the Halo series of video games. The anime series Gundam centers around giant piloted suits of armor called Mobile Suits.
Powered armor suits appear numerous times in the later Command and Conquer games. The Terrans, a future version of humanity in the StarCraft
series, are often seen in powered combat suits and equipped with rifles
that fire bullets similar to a tip of a pencil. Others are equipped
with the a sort of cybernetic implant.
Some science-fiction stories contain accounts of hand-to-hand combat
in zero gravity, and the idea that old-fashioned edged weapons—daggers,
saws, mechanical cutters—may still have the advantage in close-up
situations where projectile weapons are impractical.
Cyberwarfare and cyberweapons
The idea of cyberwarfare,
in which wars are fought within the structures of communication systems
and computers using software and information as weapons, was first
explored by science fiction.
Certain Dale Brown
novels place cyberweapons in different roles. The first is the
"netrusion" technology used by the U.S. Air Force. It sends corrupt data
to oncoming missiles to shut them down, as well as hostile aircraft by
giving them a "shutdown" order in which the systems turn off one by one.
It is also used to send false messages to hostiles, to place the tide
of battle in the favor of America. The technology is later
reverse-engineered by the Russian Federation to shut down American
antiballistic missile satellites from a tracking station at Socotra
Island, Yemen.
Cyberwarfare has moved from a theoretical idea to something that is now seriously considered as a threat by modern states.
In a similar but unrelated series of incidents involved various
groups of hackers from India and Pakistan who hacked and defaced several
websites of companies and government organizations based in each
other's country. The actions were committed by various groups based in
both countries, but not known to be affiliated with the governments of
India or Pakistan. The cyber wars are believed to have begun in 2008
following the Mumbai attacks believed to be by a group of Indian cyber
groups hacking into Pakistani websites. Hours after the cyber attacks, a
number of Indian websites (both government and private) were attacked
by groups of Pakistani hackers, claiming to be retaliation for Indian
attacks on Pakistani websites. The back and forth attacks have persisted on occasions since then.
In Fred Saberhagen's 1967 Berserker stories, the Berserkers of the title are giant computerized self-replicating spacecraft,
once used as a doomsday device in an interstellar war aeons ago, and
having destroyed both their enemies and their makers, are still
attempting to fulfil their mission of destroying all life in the
universe. The 1967 Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" written by Norman Spinrad, explores a similar theme.
Alien doomsday machines are common in science fiction as "Big Dumb Objects", McGuffins around which the plot can be constructed. An example is the Halo megastructures in the video game franchise Halo,
which are a system of world-sized doomsday machines that when fired
simultaneously will eliminate all sentient life in three radii of the
galactic center, with each one having a maximum effective range of
25,000 light-years in every direction.
Another common theme is that of dehumanised, cyborg or android soldiers: human, or quasi-human beings who are themselves weapons. Philip K. Dick's 1953 short story "Second Variety" features self-replicating robot weapons, this time with the added theme of weapons imitating humans. In his short story "Impostor", Dick goes one step further, making its protagonist a manlike robot bomb that actually believes itself to be a human being.
The idea of robot killing machines disguised as humans is central to James Cameron's film The Terminator, and its subsequent media franchise. They also appear as the central problem of the 1995 cult film Screamers (based on "Second Variety") and its sequel. The Battlestar Galactica's cylons
are sentient weapons, too, even in the original series and in its
reboot in the 2000s. However, human-looking cylons are the central
characters of the remake series (in the original series, only one
prototype was human-looking).
In John Carpenter's 1974 film Dark Star,
a notable portion of the plot involves the characters trying to
convince a large, intelligent bomb not to detonate inside the ship.
The idea of animated weapons is now so much a science-fiction
trope that it has spawned a whole genre of science-fiction films such as
Hardware, Death Machine, and Universal Soldier.
War on the mind
Themes of brainwashing, conditioning, memory-erasing, and other mind-control
methods as weapons of war feature in much science fiction of the late
1950s and 1960s, paralleling the contemporary panic about communist
brainwashing, existence of sleeper agents, and the real-world attempts of governments in programs such as MK-ULTRA to make such things real.
David Langford's short story "BLIT"
(1988) posits the existence of images (called "basilisks") that are
destructive to the human brain, which are used as weapons of terror by
posting copies of them in areas where they are likely to be seen by the
intended victims. Langford revisited the idea in a fictional FAQ on the images, published by the science journal Nature in 1999. The neuralyzer from the Men in Black films
are compact objects that can erase and modify the short-term memories
of witnesses by the means of a brief flash of light, ensuring that no
one remembers encountering either aliens or the agents themselves.
The TV series Dollhouse
(2009) features technology that can "mindwipe" people (transforming
them into "actives", or "dolls") and replace their inherent
personalities with another one, either "real" (from another actual
person's mind), fabricated (for example, a soldier trained in many
styles of combat and weaponry, or unable to feel pain), or a mixture of
both. In a future timeline of the series, the technology has been
devised into a mass weapon, able to "remote wipe" anyone and replace
them with any personality. A war erupts between those controlling
actives, and "actuals" (a term to describe those still retaining their
original personas). An offshoot technology allows actual people to
upload upgrades to their personas (such as fighting or language skills),
similar to the process seen in The Matrix, albeit for only one skill at a time.
Biological weapons
Biological weapons and bioterrorism have appeared in many science-fiction works, arguably dating back to The War of the Worlds (1897), in which the invading Martians are ultimately defeated by infection from Earth bacteria. In the dystopian film V for Vendetta,
the fascist government of Britain causes a plague for which it has the
only antidote, to ensure complete takeover of the country. In two books
in the Animorphs series, The Hork-Bajir Chronicles and The Arrival,
engineered viruses are created by an alien species to cause massive
casualties against their enemies. Similarly, a biological virus is
created by the Draka in the novel The Stone Dogs. A manufactured virus is responsible for turning humans into zombies in the Resident Evil video game series.
Some weapons in science fiction can be folded and put away for easy
storage. For instance, the sword carried by Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek
movie of 2009 had its blade unfold from its own form into the fully
extended position from the state of a simple handle. Another example of
this are the weapons of the Mass Effect
universe. The weaponry in the games could fold up into smaller and more
compact shapes when holstered or deactivated. Lightsabers from Star Wars
are no larger than a flashlight until they are turned on. In the 1980's
Transformers animated series several of the Autobots and Decepticons
shrink or enlarge to the size of the vehicle, weapon, or object they
copied or to a size permitting transport of another Transformer or used
as a weapon (Megatron shrank to a "normal" handgun or to a weapon sized
for a Transformer the same size to wield.
Parallels between science-fiction and real-world weapons
In some cases, the influence of science fiction on weapons
programs has been specifically acknowledged. In 2007, science-fiction
author Thomas Easton was invited to address engineers working on a DARPA program to create weaponized cyborg insects, as envisaged in his novel Sparrowhawk.
Active research on powered exoskeletons for military use has a long history, beginning with the abortive 1960s Hardiman powered exoskeleton project at General Electric, and continuing into the 21st century. The borrowing between fiction and reality has worked both ways, with the power loader from the film Aliens resembling the prototypes of the Hardiman system.
American military research on high-power laser weapons started in the 1960s, and has continued to the present day, with the U.S. Army planning, as of 2008, the deployment of practical battlefield laser weapons. Lower-powered lasers are currently used for military purposes as laser target designators and for military rangefinding. Laser weapons intended to blind combatants have also been developed, but are currently banned by the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons,
although low-power versions designed to dazzle rather than blind have
been developed experimentally. Gun-mounted lasers have also been used as
psychological weapons, to let opponents know that they have been
targeted to encourage them to hide or flee without having to actually
open fire on them.
Who can think at this present time
without a sickening of the heart of the appalling slaughter, the
suffering, the manifold misery brought by war to Spain and to China?
Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean,
waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction?
Safire says Bernard Baruch used that exact phrase in 1946 (in a speech at the United Nations probably written by Herbert Bayard Swope).
The phrase found its way into the very first resolution the United
Nations General assembly adopted in January 1946 in London, which used
the wording "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons
and of all other weapons adaptable to mass destruction." The resolution also created the Atomic Energy Commission (predecessor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)).
It is a very far reaching control which would eliminate
the rivalry between nations in this field, which would prevent the
surreptitious arming of one nation against another, which would provide
some cushion of time before atomic attack, and presumably therefore
before any attack with weapons of mass destruction, and which would go a
long way toward removing atomic energy at least as a source of conflict
between the powers.
The term was also used in the introduction to the hugely influential U.S. government document known as NSC 68 written in 1950.
During a speech at Rice University on 12 September 1962, President John F. Kennedy spoke of not filling space "with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding." The following month, during a televised presentation about the Cuban Missile Crisis on 22 October 1962, Kennedy made reference to "offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction."
An early use of the exact phrase in an international treaty is in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, but the treaty provides no definition of the phrase,
and the treaty also categorically prohibits the stationing of "weapons"
and the testing of "any type of weapon" in outer space, in addition to
its specific prohibition against placing in orbit, or installing on
celestial bodies, "any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other
kinds of weapons of mass destruction."
Evolution of its use
During the Cold War, the term "weapons of mass destruction" was primarily a reference to nuclear weapons. At the time, in the West the euphemism "strategic weapons"
was used to refer to the American nuclear arsenal. However, there is no
precise definition of the "strategic" category, neither considering
range nor yield of the nuclear weapon.
Subsequent to Operation Opera,
the destruction of a pre-operational nuclear reactor inside Iraq by the
Israeli Air Force in 1981, the Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin,
countered criticism by saying that "on no account shall we permit an
enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against the people of
Israel." This policy of pre-emptive action against real or perceived
weapons of mass destruction became known as the Begin Doctrine.
The term "weapons of mass destruction" continued to see periodic use, usually in the context of nuclear arms control; Ronald Reagan used it during the 1986 Reykjavík Summit, when referring to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, used the term in a 1989 speech to the United Nations, primarily in reference to chemical arms.
The end of the Cold War reduced U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons
as a deterrent, causing it to shift its focus to disarmament. With the
1990 invasion of Kuwait and 1991 Gulf War, Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs became a particular concern of the first Bush Administration. Following the war, Bill Clinton and other western politicians and media continued to use the term, usually in reference to ongoing attempts to dismantle Iraq's weapons programs.
In early 2019, more than 90% of the world's 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by Russia and the United States.
After the 11 September 2001 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, an increased fear of nonconventional weapons and asymmetric warfare took hold in many countries. The fear reached a crescendo with the 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis and the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that became the primary justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq; however, American forces found none in Iraq. They found old stockpiles of chemical munitions including sarin and mustard agents, but all were considered to be unusable because of corrosion or degradation.
Iraq, however, declared a chemical weapons stockpile in 2009 which U.N.
personnel had secured after the 1991 Gulf War. The stockpile contained
mainly chemical precursors, but some munitions remained usable.
Because of its prolific use and (worldwide) public profile during this period, the American Dialect Society voted "weapons of mass destruction" (and its abbreviation, "WMD") the word of the year in 2002, and in 2003 Lake Superior State University
added WMD to its list of terms banished for "Mis-use, Over-use and
General Uselessness" (and "as a card that trumps all forms of
aggression").
There have been calls to classify at least some classes of cyber weapons as WMD, in particular those aimed to bring about large-scale (physical) destruction, such as by targeting critical infrastructure.
However, some scholars have objected to classifying cyber weapons as
WMD on the grounds that they "cannot [currently] directly injure or kill
human beings as efficiently as guns or bombs" or clearly "meet the
legal and historical definitions" of WMD.
Definitions of the term
United States
Strategic definition
The most widely used definition of "weapons of mass destruction" is that of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons (NBC) although there is no treaty or customary international law
that contains an authoritative definition. Instead, international law
has been used with respect to the specific categories of weapons within
WMD, and not to WMD as a whole. While nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons are regarded as the three major types of WMDs,
some analysts have argued that radiological materials as well as
missile technology and delivery systems such as aircraft and ballistic
missiles could be labeled as WMDs as well.
However, there is an argument that nuclear and biological weapons do not belong in the same category as chemical and "dirty bomb"
radiological weapons, which have limited destructive potential (and
close to none, as far as property is concerned), whereas nuclear and
biological weapons have the unique ability to kill large numbers of
people with very small amounts of material, and thus could be said to
belong in a class by themselves.
Other documents expand the definition of WMD to also include radiological or conventional weapons. The U.S. military refers to WMD as:
Chemical, biological, radiological,
or nuclear weapons capable of a high order of destruction or causing
mass casualties and exclude the means of transporting or propelling the
weapon where such means is a separable and divisible part from the
weapon. Also called WMD.
This may also refer to nuclear ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles).
Protest in Amsterdam against the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe, 1981
The significance of the words separable and divisible part of the weapon is that missiles such as the Pershing II and the SCUD are considered weapons of mass destruction, while aircraft capable of carrying bombloads are not.
In 2004, the United Kingdom's Butler Review
recognized the "considerable and long-standing academic debate about
the proper interpretation of the phrase 'weapons of mass destruction'". The committee set out to avoid the general term but when using it, employed the definition of United Nations Security Council Resolution 687, which defined the systems which Iraq was required to abandon:
"Nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons-usable material or any
sub-systems or components or any research, development, support or
manufacturing facilities relating to [nuclear weapons].
Chemical and biological weapons and all stocks of agents and all
related subsystems and components and all research, development, support
and manufacturing facilities.
Ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres and related major parts, and repair and production facilities."
Chemical weapons expert Gert G. Harigel considers only nuclear
weapons true weapons of mass destruction, because "only nuclear weapons
are completely indiscriminate by their explosive power, heat radiation
and radioactivity, and only they should therefore be called a weapon of
mass destruction". He prefers to call chemical and biological weapons
"weapons of terror" when aimed against civilians and "weapons of
intimidation" for soldiers.
Testimony of one such soldier expresses the same viewpoint. For a period of several months in the winter of 2002–2003, U.S. Deputy Secretary of DefensePaul Wolfowitz
frequently used the term "weapons of mass terror", apparently also
recognizing the distinction between the psychological and the physical
effects of many things currently falling into the WMD category.
An additional condition often implicitly applied to WMD is that
the use of the weapons must be strategic. In other words, they would be
designed to "have consequences far outweighing the size and
effectiveness of the weapons themselves". The strategic nature of WMD also defines their function in the military doctrine of total war
as targeting the means a country would use to support and supply its
war effort, specifically its population, industry, and natural
resources.
Within U.S. civil defense organizations, the category is now Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE), which defines WMD as:
(1) Any explosive, incendiary, poison gas, bomb, grenade, or rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces [113 g], missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce [7 g], or mine
or device similar to the above. (2) Poison gas. (3) Any weapon
involving a disease organism. (4) Any weapon that is designed to release
radiation at a level dangerous to human life.
Military definition
For the general purposes of national defense, the U.S. Code defines a weapon of mass destruction as:
any weapon or device that is intended, or has the capability, to
cause death or serious bodily injury to a significant number of people
through the release, dissemination, or impact of:
toxic or poisonous chemicals or their precursors
a disease organism
radiation or radioactivity
For the purposes of the prevention of weapons proliferation,
the U.S. Code defines weapons of mass destruction as "chemical,
biological, and nuclear weapons, and chemical, biological, and nuclear
materials used in the manufacture of such weapons".
Criminal (civilian) definition
For the purposes of U.S. criminal law concerning terrorism, weapons of mass destruction are defined as:
any "destructive device" defined as any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas
– bomb, grenade, rocket having a propellant charge of more than four
ounces, missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than
one-quarter ounce, mine, or device similar to any of the devices
described in the preceding clauses
any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious
bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or
poisonous chemicals, or their precursors
any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector
any weapon that is designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life
any "destructive device" as defined in Title 18 USC Section 921:
any explosive, incendiary, or poison gas – bomb, grenade, rocket having
a propellant charge of more than four ounces, missile having an
explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce, mine, or
device similar to any of the devices described in the preceding clauses
any weapon designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily
injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or
poisonous chemicals or their precursors
any weapon involving a disease organism
any weapon designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life
any device or weapon designed or intended to cause death or serious
bodily injury by causing a malfunction of or destruction of an aircraft
or other vehicle that carries humans or of an aircraft or other vehicle
whose malfunction or destruction may cause said aircraft or other
vehicle to cause death or serious bodily injury to humans who may be
within range of the vector in its course of travel or the travel of its
debris.
Indictments and convictions for possession and use of WMD such as truck bombs, pipe bombs, shoe bombs, and cactus needles coated with a biological toxin have been obtained under 18 USC 2332a.
As defined by 18 USC §2332 (a), a Weapon of Mass Destruction is:
(A) any destructive device as defined in section 921 of the title;
(B) any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or
serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of
toxic or poisonous chemicals, or their precursors;
(C) any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector (as those terms are defined in section 178 of this title); or
(D) any weapon that is designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life;
Under the same statute, conspiring, attempting, threatening, or using
a Weapon of Mass Destruction may be imprisoned for any term of years or
for life, and if resulting in death, be punishable by death or by
imprisonment for any terms of years or for life. They can also be asked
to pay a maximum fine of $250,000.
The Washington Post reported on 30 March 2006: "Jurors asked the judge in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
today to define the term 'weapons of mass destruction' and were told it
includes airplanes used as missiles". Moussaoui was indicted and tried
for conspiracy to both destroy aircraft and use weapons of mass
destruction, among others.
The surviving Boston Marathon bombing perpetrator, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was charged in June 2013 with the federal offense of "use of a weapon of mass destruction" after he and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev
allegedly placed crude shrapnel bombs, made from pressure cookers
packed with ball bearings and nails, near the finish line of the Boston
Marathon. He was convicted in April 2015. The bombing resulted in three
deaths and at least 264 injuries.
There are eight countries that have declared they possess nuclear
weapons and are known to have tested a nuclear weapon, only five of
which are members of the NPT. The eight are China, France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Israel
is considered by most analysts to have nuclear weapons numbering in the
low hundreds as well, but maintains an official policy of nuclear
ambiguity, neither denying nor confirming its nuclear status.
South Africa
developed a small nuclear arsenal in the 1980s but disassembled them in
the early 1990s, making it the only country to have fully given up an
independently developed nuclear weapons arsenal. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine inherited stockpiles of nuclear arms following the break-up of the Soviet Union, but relinquished them to the Russian Federation.
The history of biological warfare goes back at least to the Mongolsiege of Caffa in 1346 and possibly much farther back to antiquity. It is believed that the Ancient Greeks contaminated their adversaries' wells by placing animal corpses in them. However, only by the turn of the 20th century did advances in microbiology allow for the large-scale weaponization of pathogens. During First World War, German military attempted to introduce anthrax into Allied livestock. In Second World War, Japan conducted aerial attacks on China using fleas carrying the bubonic plague. During the 20th century, at least nine states have operated offensive biological weapons programs, including Canada (1946–1956), France (1921–1972), Iraq (1985–1990s), Japan (1930s–1945), Rhodesia, South Africa (1981–1993), the Soviet Union (1920s–1992), the United Kingdom (1934–1956), and the United States (1943–1969).
The Japanese biological weapons program, which was run by the secret Imperial Japanese ArmyUnit 731 during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), became infamous for conducting often fatal human experiments on prisoners and producing biological weapons for combat use. The Soviet Union
covertly operated the world's largest, longest, and most sophisticated
biological weapons program, in violation of its obligations under
international law.
International restrictions on biological warfare began with the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibits the use but not the possession or development of biological and chemical weapons. Upon ratification of the Geneva Protocol, several countries made reservations regarding its applicability and use in retaliation. Due to these reservations, it was in practice a "no-first-use" agreement only. The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
(BWC) supplements the Geneva Protocol by prohibiting the development,
production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling, and use of biological
weapons.
Having entered into force on 26 March 1975, the BWC was the first
multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire
category of weapons of mass destruction. As of March 2021, 183 states have become party to the treaty.
Chemical weapons have been used around the world by various
civilizations since ancient times. In the industrial era, they were used
extensively by both sides during World War I, and by the Axis powers during World War II (both in battle and in extermination camp gas chambers)
though Allied powers also stockpiled them. Countries in Western Europe
renounced the use of such weapons. As of 2018, a handful of countries
have known inventories, and many are in the process of being safely
destroyed under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Nonetheless, proliferation and use in war zones remains an active concern, most recently the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War.
Countries with known or possible chemical weapons, as of 2021
Some commentators classify some or all the uses of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons during wartime as a war crime (or crime against humanity if widespread) because they kill civilians (who are protected by the laws of war) indiscriminately or are specifically prohibited by international treaties (which have become more comprehensive over time).
Proponents of use say that specific uses of such weapons have been
necessary for defense or to avoid more deaths in a protracted war. The tactic of terror bombing from aircraft, and generally targeting cities with area bombardment or saturation carpet bombing
has also been criticized, defended, and prohibited by treaty in the
same way; the destructive effect of conventional saturation bombing is
similar to that of a nuclear weapon.
United States politics
Due
to the potentially indiscriminate effects of WMD, the fear of a WMD
attack has shaped political policies and campaigns, fostered social
movements, and has been the central theme of many films. Support for
different levels of WMD development and control varies nationally and
internationally. Yet understanding of the nature of the threats is not
high, in part because of imprecise usage of the term by politicians and
the media.
An atomic-bomb blueprint
Fear of WMD, or of threats diminished by the possession of WMD, has
long been used to catalyze public support for various WMD policies. They
include mobilization of pro- and anti-WMD campaigners alike, and
generation of popular political support. The term WMD may be used as a powerful buzzword or to generate a culture of fear. It is also used ambiguously, particularly by not distinguishing among the different types of WMD.
A television commercial called Daisy, promoting Democrat Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential candidacy, invoked the fear of a nuclear war and was an element in Johnson's subsequent election.
Later, United States' President George W. Bush used the threat of potential WMD in Iraq as justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Broad reference to Iraqi WMD in general was seen as an element of President Bush's arguments. The claim that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was a major factor that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by Coalition forces.
Over 500 munitions containing mustard agent and sarin were
discovered throughout Iraq since 2003; they were made in the 1980s and
are no longer usable as originally intended due to corrosion.
The American Heritage Dictionary
defines a weapon of mass destruction as: "a weapon that can cause
widespread destruction or kill large numbers of people, especially a
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon."[111] In other words, it does not have to be nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC). For example, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, was charged under United States law 18 U.S.C. 2332A for using a weapon of mass destruction and that was a pressure cooker bomb. In other words, it was a weapon that caused large-scale death and destruction, without being an NBC weapon.
Media coverage
In March 2004, the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) released a report examining the media's coverage of WMD issues during three separate periods: nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan in May 1998; the U.S. announcement of evidence of a North Korean nuclear weapons program in October 2002; and revelations about Iran's nuclear program in May 2003. The CISSM report argues that poor coverage resulted less from political bias among the media than from tired journalistic conventions. The report's major findings were that:
1. Most media outlets represented
WMD as a monolithic menace, failing to adequately distinguish between
weapons programs and actual weapons or to address the real differences
among chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological weapons.
2. Most journalists accepted the Bush administration's
formulation of the "War on Terror" as a campaign against WMD, in
contrast to coverage during the Clinton era, when many journalists made
careful distinctions between acts of terrorism and the acquisition and
use of WMD.
3. Many stories stenographically reported the incumbent
administration's perspective on WMD, giving too little critical
examination of the way officials framed the events, issues, threats, and
policy options.
4. Too few stories proffered alternative perspectives to official line, a
problem exacerbated by the journalistic prioritizing of breaking-news
stories and the "inverted pyramid" style of storytelling.
— Susan D. Moeller, Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction
In a separate study published in 2005, a group of researchers assessed the effects reports and retractions in the media had on people's memory regarding the search for WMD in Iraq during the 2003 Iraq War. The study focused on populations in two coalition
countries (Australia and the United States) and one opposed to the war
(Germany). Results showed that U.S. citizens generally did not correct
initial misconceptions regarding WMD, even following disconfirmation;
Australian and German citizens were more responsive to retractions.
Dependence on the initial source of information led to a substantial
minority of Americans exhibiting false memory that WMD were indeed discovered, while they were not. This led to three conclusions:
The repetition of tentative news stories, even if they are
subsequently disconfirmed, can assist in the creation of false memories
in a substantial proportion of people.
Once information is published, its subsequent correction does not
alter people's beliefs unless they are suspicious about the motives
underlying the events the news stories are about.
When people ignore corrections, they do so irrespective of how certain they are that the corrections occurred.
A poll conducted between June and September 2003 asked people whether
they thought evidence of WMD had been discovered in Iraq since the war
ended. They were also asked which media sources they relied upon. Those
who obtained their news primarily from Fox News were three times as
likely to believe that evidence of WMD had been discovered in Iraq than
those who relied on PBS and NPR for their news, and one third more
likely than those who primarily watched CBS.
Media source
Respondents believing evidence of WMD had been found in Iraq
Based on a series of polls taken from June–September 2003.
In 2006, Fox News reported the claims of two Republican lawmakers that WMDs had been found in Iraq, based upon unclassified portions of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center. Quoting from the report, Senator Rick Santorum
said "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500
weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent".
According to David Kay, who appeared before the U.S. House Armed
Services Committee to discuss these badly corroded munitions, they were
leftovers, many years old, improperly stored or destroyed by the Iraqis. Charles Duelfer agreed, stating on NPR's Talk of the Nation:
"When I was running the ISG – the Iraq Survey Group – we had a couple
of them that had been turned in to these IEDs, the improvised explosive
devices. But they are local hazards. They are not a major, you know,
weapon of mass destruction."
Later, wikileaks would show that WMDs of these kinds continued to be found as the Iraqi occupation continued.
Many news agencies, including Fox News, reported the conclusions of the CIA that, based upon the investigation of the Iraq Survey Group, WMDs are yet to be found in Iraq.
Public perceptions
Awareness
and opinions of WMD have varied during the course of their history.
Their threat is a source of unease, security, and pride to different
people. The anti-WMD movement is embodied most in nuclear disarmament, and led to the formation of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1957.
In order to increase awareness of all kinds of WMD, in 2004 the nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Joseph Rotblat inspired the creation of The WMD Awareness Programme to provide trustworthy and up to date information on WMD worldwide.
In 1998 University of New Mexico's Institute for Public Policy released their third report on U.S. perceptions – including the general public, politicians and scientists – of nuclear weapons since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Risks of nuclear conflict, proliferation, and terrorism were seen as substantial.
While maintenance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was considered
above average in importance, there was widespread support for a
reduction in the stockpile, and very little support for developing and
testing new nuclear weapons.
Also in 1998, but after the UNM survey was conducted, nuclear weapons became an issue in India's election of March,[citation needed] in relation to political tensions with neighboring Pakistan. Prior to the election the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would "declare India a nuclear weapon state" after coming to power.
BJP won the elections, and on 14 May, three days after India
tested nuclear weapons for the second time, a public opinion poll
reported that a majority of Indians favored the country's nuclear
build-up.[citation needed]
On 15 April 2004, the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) reported that U.S. citizens showed high levels of concern regarding WMD, and that preventing the spread of nuclear weapons
should be "a very important U.S. foreign policy goal", accomplished
through multilateral arms control rather than the use of military
threats.
A majority also believed the United States should be more forthcoming with its biological research and its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty commitment of nuclear arms reduction.
A Russian opinion poll conducted on 5 August 2005 indicated half
the population believes new nuclear powers have the right to possess
nuclear weapons. 39% believes the Russian stockpile should be reduced, though not fully eliminated.
Weapons of mass destruction and their related impacts have been a mainstay of popular culture since the beginning of the Cold War,
as both political commentary and humorous outlet. The actual phrase
"weapons of mass destruction" has been used similarly and as a way to
characterise any powerful force or product since the Iraqi weapons
crisis in the lead up to the Coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. Science-fiction may introduce novel weapons of mass destruction with much greater yields or impact than anything in reality.
The international radioactivity symbol (also known as trefoil) first appeared in 1946, at the University of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. At the time, it was rendered as magenta, and was set on a blue background.
It is drawn with a central circle of radius R, the blades having an internal radius of 1.5R and an external radius of 5R, and separated from each other by 60°. It is meant to represent a radiating atom.
The International Atomic Energy Agency
found that the trefoil radiation symbol is unintuitive and can be
variously interpreted by those uneducated in its meaning; therefore, its
role as a hazard warning was compromised as it did not clearly indicate
"danger" to many non-Westerners and children who encountered it. As a
result of research, a new radiation hazard symbol (ISO 21482) was
developed in 2007 to be placed near the most dangerous parts of
radiation sources featuring a skull, someone running away, and using a
red rather than yellow background.
The red background is intended to convey urgent danger, and the
sign is intended to be used on equipment where very strong ionizing
radiation can be encountered if the device is dismantled or otherwise
tampered with. The intended use of the sign is not in a place where the
normal user will see it, but in a place where it will be seen by someone
who has started to dismantle a radiation-emitting device or equipment.
The aim of the sign is to warn people such as scrap metal workers to
stop work and leave the area.
Biological weaponry or hazard symbol
Developed by Dow Chemical company in the 1960s for their containment products.
According to Charles Dullin, an environmental-health engineer who contributed to its development:
"We wanted something that was memorable but meaningless, so we could educate people as to what it means."
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