Keeping the peace green: Integrating arms control and environmental protection

摘要

This talk is about how to avoid turning swords into Superfund sites. The problem we address is the potential conflict between the desire to take advantage of the greater international security brought by the end of the Cold War by entering arms control agreements requiring various military weapons to be dismantled, and the desire to avoid further degrading the environment in the process of destroying them. We will use as an illustration of these issues the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which is intended to cause the destruction of all chemical weapons in the world. First, we will provide a brief overview of the CWC, then we will focus in on its environmental provisions, and, finally, we will discuss potential conflicts with United States law and how they might be resolved.