The Temptations of Military Technology

Certain types of weapons have been considered so horrendous that their use has been proscribed by international law. Important examples of such restrictions include the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) and the recent Convention on Cluster Munitions (2010). These conventions have made valuable contributions to the protection of life. However, they also have limitations. For example, major producers and users of cluster munitions, including Israel, Russia and the United States, have not signed the CCM. Furthermore, there are always temptations to find ways around such legislation or to develop entirely new types of weapons. Two of the many such possibilities will be noted here the use of drugs as weapons and the use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). 

As the development of such weapons also requires medical skills, the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors in the UK, has published a detailed assessment of the topic [10]. The overall conclusion is that the BMA is fundamentally opposed to the use of any pharmaceutical agent as a weapon , with key reasons including the need to uphold existing law unequivocally (BTWC and CWC) and the multiple, and probably insurmountable, difficulties that will prevent the use of pharmaceuticals as weapons without causing innocent deaths and disability. This conclusion is consonant with the BMA s overall guidance on the involvement of doctors in weapons development  

This authoritative analysis should also give cause for concern to any engineer approached with a proposal for work in this area. 

Drugs as weapons and drones are just two of the very many types of weapons which are currently under engineering development, with potential for hugely deleterious effects on human wellbeing. Further analysis of the contribution of engineering to war and peace can begin by consideration of just war theory. 

---