Falling between the Cracks and by the Sides
Next month, Essentials of Biological Security: A Global Perspective edited by Lijun Shang, Weiwen Zhang and Malcolm Dando will be published. The book offers an introduction to biological security and the chemical and biological weapons (CBW) threat spectrum and explores the history of biological weapons from antiquity to modern day. Its core comprises expert analyses of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and other relevant international agreements and organisations and practical discussions of dual-use technologies and how to minimise their risk. (For a preview of the book contents, click here.) I contributed the chapter Falling between the Cracks and by …
On the medieval siege of Caffa and Black Death
Catapulting corpses? A famous case of medieval biological warfare probably never happened By Matt Field, August 10, 2023 Poke through the history of biological weapons long enough and you will likely come across a particularly macabre claim. In 1346, the story goes, an army of the Golden Horde—an offshoot of Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire—was laying siege to Caffa, a Genoese trading center on the Crimean Peninsula. But as Janibeg, the ruler of the Golden Horde, waited for Caffa to surrender, his fighters began to succumb to a mysterious ailment. “It was as though arrows were raining down from heaven to …
Verification and Transparency: Learning from Project Coast
Introduction to Historical Notes, Issue #5 The fifth issue of the Historical Notes series was prepared by Professor Brian Rappert, Ms Lizeka Tandwa and Dr Chandré Gould. The South African Defence Force (SADF) established a top-secret chemical and biological weapon (CBW) programme code-named ‘Project Coast’ that operated between 1981 and 1995. Its primary aims were to develop a defensive capability for the SADF and weaponise chemical agents for crowd control, specifically during protests, and for the targeted assassinations of political activists in and outside of South Africa. The history and motives of this CBW programme, as far as it can …
Catapulting Cadavers: A Medieval Practice of Biological Warfare?
Introduction to Historical Notes, Issue #2 The Mongol siege of Caffa in 1346 is closely associated with the spread of the plague epidemic to continental Europe and northern Africa. A major Genoese trading post in the Crimea, its citizens escaped via the Black Sea and the Bosporus, eventually bringing the Black Death to Mediterranean ports from where it spread inland or onward to coastal cities in west and north Europe, eventually reaching even Iceland. Bad as the medieval pandemic was, its transfer to the Mediterranean basin some authors have attributed to an act of warfare: the catapulting of plague-ridden corpses …
de Mussi and the Siege of Caffa: Origin of a Biological Warfare Allegation
The plague pandemic that hit central and western Asia, the Mediterranean societies and western and northern Europe in the middle of the 14th century features in all present-day historical narratives of chemical and biological warfare. To many writers those events underscore the potential of massive destruction in terms of both human and economic losses to societies. They also tend to ascribe the pandemic’s origin to a specific deed, namely the catapulting of diseased bodies into the Crimean town of Caffa by Mongol besiegers in 1346. Fleeing citizens carried what became known as the ‘Black Death’ to Mediterranean ports from where …
Education on CBRN-relevant dual-use technology transfers in Moldova
The Science and Technology Centre in Ukraine (STCU) just published a summary of the short virtual course on CBRN-relevant dual-use technology transfers I taught in Moldova on 2 – 5 February. The course was another step in the project to design, develop and teach a full master’s course on export controls and technology governance for the GUAM countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova). As I described in a previous blog post, the educational initiative forms part of a larger Targeted Initiative funded by the European Commission that is implemented through the STCU and International Science and technology Centre (ISTC) in …