SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Comparative Governance
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1654084
This article is part of the Research TopicChemical and Biological WeaponsView all 5 articles
Political Factors in Bioweapons Programs: Case Studies of the Soviet Union and Iraq
Provisionally accepted
- independent consultant, Washington, DC, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Germ weapons can devastate human, animal, and plant populations, and the universe of possible biowarfare agents is expanding with advances such as CRISPR and AI. Yet, political leaders order the development and use of weapons, and they also pass laws and establish regulations and policies to govern their societies. Such political factors can frame the choice of biological agents; the characteristics of research, development, testing, and production programs; and military doctrine for biological warfare. These other factors can be identified, evaluated, and used to inform efforts to detect proliferation. Therefore, this article presents case studies elaborating the sociological context, motivations, organizational structure, level of science, technology, and safety, military doctrine, and visibility of the Soviet and Iraqi bioweapons programs.
Keywords: biological weapons, biosafety, verification, Inspections, Comparative studies
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Smithson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amy E. Smithson, carolina_aes@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.