05/02/2011 - 07:05  Re-envisioning the Chemical Weapons
Convention  Jonathan B. Tucker  Jonathan B. Tucker  Tucker
manages the Biosecurity Education Project at the Federation of
American Scientists (FAS). Trained in biology and security
studies,...   When Albert Einstein developed his theory of
relativity, he made extensive use of "thought experiments" --
hypothetical exercises that, while impossible to carry out in
real life, are useful for testing complex theories. In one well-
known case, he compared the passage of time on a train traveling
at close to the speed of light with that of a stationary
observer in order to elucidate a concept known as the
"relativity of simultaneity."  Similarly, thought experiments
are one way to assess the implications for the 1993 Chemical
Weapons Convention (CWC) of expanding the scope of the
definitions in the treaty text, either through novel
interpretations or by taking emerging technologies into account.
For example, when the CWC negotiations concluded in 1992, the
revolu