There are unconfirmed reports that Russia has used chemical weapons in Ukraine. Syria’s recent chemical weapons use offers context for understanding this tactic. Chemical weapons terrify civilians.
Royal Canadian Air Force personnel load non-lethal and lethal aid at CFB Trenton, Ont., on March 7, 2022. The cargo was bound for Ukraine via Poland.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Nisha Shah, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
The laws of war and what is considered acceptable and unacceptable weaponry suggest there’s a right and wrong way to kill. It’s unlikely any of the victims of war would appreciate the distinction.
It goes against the basic principles of humanity and common sense to prohibit weapons in international conflict, but allow them to be used against civilian protesters.
Pepper spray uses a chemical called capsaicin. It’s the same compound that makes chillies hot, but in a more intense, weaponised form.
Members of the Maryland Air National Guard arrange medical supplies for shipment from the Strategic National Stockpile.
Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers/Maryland Air National Guard
Andrew Lakoff, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The paradox of the stockpile is that it’s meant to protect against future threats, but is limited by today’s imagination about what those threats might be.
Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Some of the major events in US-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations’ views, but others presented real opportunities for reconciliation.
In 2014, this boy was affected by what activists say was a gas attack on the Syrian town of Telminnes; the most recent chemical attack was reported in late November, 2018
REUTERS/Amer Alfaj
For decades, international law did not allow one country to attack another that was using chemical weapons on its own people without UN approval. That’s changed, which means trouble for Syria.
Chemical weapons in civilian attacks;: Novichok decontamination work in the area where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found poisoned and unconscious in Salisbury, UK.
Shutterstock/Amani A
The use of chemical weapons has shifted from the battlefield to attacks on civilian targets. Time to rethink the convention that prohibits their use.
In this file photo taken on on Oct. 4, 1987, a Soviet army officer presents ammunition rigged with chemical agents during a visit by Western diplomats and journalists to a chemical weapons research facility in Shikhany, Saratov region, Russia. The facility in Shikhany led the efforts to develop Soviet chemical weapons, including Novichok-class nerve agents.
John Thor Dahlburg/ AP Photo
The same deadly nerve agent used against a former Russian spy and his daughter could be linked to a second poisoning that killed a 44 year old woman in the UK.
German troops near the front in 1915.
Wikimedia Commons
Are air strikes really a way to hold the Syrian regime responsible for its alleged atrocities against humanity? History says no.
A Syrian soldier films the damage of the Syrian Scientific Research Center which was attacked by U.S., British and French military strikes.
AP Photo/Hassan Ammar
The United Nations Charter doesn’t allow the use of military force to prevent chemical weapons attacks — no matter how evil — without UN Security Council approval. That needs to change.
The UN Security Council has proved powerless to stop Assad’s use of chemical agents.
EPA/Peter Foley