Chemical weapons destruction public, role

A variety of methods have been utilized to communicate with the public and to solicit public input regarding chemical weapons destruction. Public information sessions have a very narrow dynamic. A few representatives from the Army, usually public affairs officers, are positioned at the front of the room and the citizens primarily serve an audience role. At some point in the hearing, the members of the public are invited to express their concerns or their support or to ask questions about a decision already made by the Army. This style of public interaction is often called Decide, Announce, Defend , and it offers very little in the way of a constructive role for the pubhc in actual decision-making. 

What role is the Chemical Weapons Convention portrayed as playing in the ongoing wrangling over chemical weapons destruction Public policy experts seem to focus on the international treaty as a motivational force driving chemical weapons disposal. " In the media, there is an underlying effort to impute culpability for the need to destroy the US chemical weapons stockpile to international treaties, often without recognizing that the weapons were declared obsolete by the US Department of Defense 10 years before the CWC was signed and 15 years before it came... 

The role that the public has assumed - neither enshrined in the treaty documentation nor anticipated by the States Parties is another unique characteristic of the CWC. Here again, the Convention is evolutionary compared with earlier treaties and international agreements. Chemical weapons disposal has emerged as a vivid example of how local environmental justice concerns can intersect with global disarmament and nonproliferation efforts. With no formal inducement, the public has become a player in the execution of the CWC-mandated destruction of chemical weapons. What lessons can be learned from the public response and how... 

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