Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System

Transcription

1 Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System 1 Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System Col. V.B. ANTIPOV (Res.), Doctor of Technical Sciences Col. S.V. NOVICHKOV (Res.), Candidate of Technical Sciences Vladimir B. ANTiPoV was born in Saratov in He graduated from the Higher Military Engineering School of Chemical defense in his hometown (1981) and the Marshal S.k. Timoshenko Military Academy of Chemical defense in Moscow (1989). He served with testing and scientific research institutions of the Russian Armed Forces radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops, starting out as testing engineer and advancing to deputy chief of a research center. Today, he is chief research associate at the research center of the defense Ministry s 33rd Central Scientific Research Testing institute (Federal State Budgetary institution). Sergei V. NoViCHkoV was born in Saratov in He graduated from the Higher Military Engineering School of Chemical defense at his birthplace (1982) and the Marshal S.k. Timoshenko Military Academy of Chemical defense (1992). He served with testing and scientific research institutions of the Russian Armed Forces radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops, advancing from testing engineer to department chief of a research center. Today, he is leading research associate at the research center of the defense Ministry s 33rd Central Scientific Research Testing institute (Federal State Budgetary institution). Abstract. the authors examine the significance of military chemical in the country s overall national and priority measures to maintain it in the current situation. keywords: national, military chemical, military chemical potential, threats to, maintenance measures, Chemical Weapons Convention.

2 2 MilitAry thought As an independent many-sided issue, russia s national was first given priority attention in the late 1990s at the turn of an era in the country s historical evolution marked by the breakdown of old stereotypes, depreciation of values, and choice of a new development course. these changes regardless, official documents, academic publications, and the media use different terms indiscriminately, state, national, international, collective, and regional, among others. this spread of choice is, in our view, evidence of a lack of common approaches to the interpretation of national by russian and foreign experts. to remind, russian Federation law # , March 5, 1992 (as amended by Federal law # 103-Fl of June 26, 2008) is the methodological and legal basis of national looked at from the theoretical and practical angles. the points raised in the law were made more specific in the national strategy of the russian Federation in the period up to 2020 approved by the russian president in his decree # 537 of May 12, the strategy, too, sets out guidelines and principles of government policy in this area and serves as a framework for developing targeted programs and organizational documents relating to the maintenance of the russian Federation s national. the strategy interprets national as assured protection of the individual, society, and the nation from internal and external threats for the exercise of constitutional rights and freedoms, support of a decent quality of life and living standards, and maintenance of the russian Federation s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and sustainable development, and the country s defense and. 1 the concept of applies, above all, to the individual and the individual s rights and freedoms; society and its material and spiritual values; and the nation, its constitutional system, sovereignty and territorial integrity. All priorities are of a situational type, changing with the circumstances. prosperity of the land and nation that feel no need to sacrifice any of their interests under the pressure of external and internal threats is an integral sign of national. A systemic approach is a starting point for examining all aspects of national. not only because it applies to a system of the individual, society, and the state it is also taken toward external and internal and binds together all its types, from military, economic, sociopolitical or social to environmental, informational, or any other. there is only a loose catalogue of national types, and no definitive and commonly accepted structure to be embraced by everyone. this is probably the reason many top academics seized upon to extend the bounds of the national system to infinity, turning it into a hypersystem. some say the system has to cover all fields of society s life, beginning with a civilized choice of the country s development, and others argue it must include all government agencies working toward successful evolution of russian statehood. Actually, the boundaries of the national system are drawn in the law and specified in the national strategy of the russian Fed-

3 Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System 3 eration in the period up to Following the methodological principles laid down in these documents, the national structure can, in our view, be as it is shown in the chart below. Military takes a prominent place in the national system. today, it implies protection of the vital interests of every individual, society, and the state by using armed force where cannot be maintained by political arrangements at the national, regional, or global level. Military is also understood as assured protection of the vital interests of the individual, society, and the state from external and internal military threats of the use or possible use of military force, as the absence of military threat, or ability to counter it. 2 A strong state alone can forestall, neutralize or repel attempts at military dictate, defend its interests, and achieve its goals. With armed conflicts and wars an integral part of politics now and in the near term, national cannot be reliable enough unless it is backed up by armed force. like any other country, russia must, therefore, have adequate military power. the content of, and guidelines for, the Armed Forces development and the nature of russia s military policy as a whole do not depend on whether or not it has an enemy at the moment (any estimates if this is right or wrong are swayed by the current situation and are largely biased). rather, they are dictated by the recognition that russia has interests and values it cannot give up out of its desire to avoid war and must be able to defend if an armed attack is launched against it. Military is named among other types of national because the russian Federation is still exposed to military threats. Proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMd) and technologies to manufacture them and their delivery vehicles, particularly in its neighbor countries or regions close to it, is one of the most fearful threats. the list of threats posed by international terrorism and especially the possibility of extremists getting hold of and using nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, continues to grow. the scale and possible consequences of such threats being fulfilled compel russia to attach particular significance to nuclear, chemical, and biological. Considering the role and place on nuclear weapons in russia s national in general, it is reasonable, in our view, to give nuclear the status of a variety of military, and radiation to be added to chemical and biological to be discussed together. radiation, chemical, and biological (rcb) may be viewed as a type of military that is broken down into radiation, military chemical, and military biological types, each carrying its specific threats as a type of WMd (see: Chart). We will now discuss military chemical in more detail. According to russian and foreign experts in proliferation of chemical weapons, with the Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling, and use of Chemical Weapons and on their destruction (hereinafter the Chemical Weapons Convention) fully in force, the significance of military chemical secu-

4 4 MilitAry thought Political Nuclear National internal External Economic Military Social Spiritual Scientific and technological Environmental information Aerospace Naval Radiation, chemical, and biological Antiterrorist (incl. chemical and biological) Counterintelligence Radiation Military chemical Military biological Fig. National structure.

5 Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System 5 rity in the country general system shows no sign of decreasing for several major reasons: stockpiles of chemical weapons will be kept by some signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention until 2015 (by some estimates, the u.s. will probably keep its stockpiles until 2017); some countries refuse to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, even if they have chemical weapons; any country can pull out of the Chemical Weapons Convention before or during a war, if it thinks its national interests are under threat; there is a high probability of new highly toxic agents being developed within the framework of the Chemical Weapons Convention; possibility of attempts being made in secret to violate or bypass the Chemical Weapons Convention by some countries to develop chemical weapons jointly or purchase them from unaligned countries still exists; advance of chemical technologies permits toxic chemicals to be produced in quantities wanted rapidly and in secret; production of chemical weapons is relatively simple and inexpensive; and potentially, the capabilities of chemical weapons systems increase continuously as airborne, missile, and artillery weapons are modernized and new models developed, along with conventional cluster and other ammunition. the Chemical Weapons Convention calls for efforts to be focused on monitoring toxic agents and their precursors in the chemical weapons stockpiles of different countries. still, many other substances and classes of very toxic compounds are not on the schedules of toxic chemicals contained in the Convention. Moreover, the organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (opcw) has not yet made up its mind to expand the schedules of chemicals to be monitored. these schedules are a major tool in chemical weapons control, particularly in verifying fulfillment of obligations to restrict import and export of chemicals. Member countries are required to inform the opcw of amendments to be made to the schedules. this obligation is flouted completely, particularly by member countries that are conducting wide-ranging chemical agents research programs in fields to which the ban does not apply. Actually, the schedules have turned into control restraints. the u.s. leadership holds to a clear view on the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons as a threat to the country and its allies possession of such weapons may allow a hostile and less powerful country to strike a military balance with the advanced well-armed nation. the u.s. national strategy, May 2010, says: the gravest danger to the American people and global continues to come from weapons of mass destruction.

6 6 MilitAry thought speaking at the pentagon in January 2012, leon e. panetta, the u.s. secretary of defense, said that worldwide proliferation of technologies to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons intensifies the potential threat from regional countries by giving them a greater freedom of action to challenge u.s. interests and that the pentagon would continue to invest in greater opportunities for detecting WMd, in defense against them, and retaliate in response to the use of these weapons, unless preventive measures succeed. 3 Military and political leaders of many countries are haunted by fears of these threats. According to many experts, the annual costs of providing defense against WMd across the world are to reach $9 billion within years. 4 in the u.s. alone, budgetary allocations for the program of defense against chemical and biological weapons rose by more than 120% (from $575.5 million to $ million) between 1997 (when the Chemical Weapons Convention went into effect) and some military experts predict an extremely dangerous situation arising in arms and disarmament control efforts that are still guided by rules inherited from the bipolar world. nato s aggression against former yugoslavia showed these rules to be outdated. no holds are barred in the fight for a country s survival and integrity. As u.s. chemical scientists A. Fries and C. West wrote back in the 1920s, where the use of a powerful weapon of war could be stopped by an agreement, the war itself might have been prevented by agreement. 6 experts, of all people, expect, therefore, nonnuclear countries to intensify attempts to acquire WMd (including chemical weapons) and missile manufacturing technologies. if they do, military chemical would be even more difficult to maintain. Military chemical is assured protection of the forces and population of a country against the threat of its opponent using weapons based on toxic agents. Chemical can be maintained by measures tentatively divided into active and passive measures. Active measures include destruction of enemy chemical weapons deployed, in depots and stockpiles and delivery vehicles by missile and air strikes and commando raids. developing a military chemical potential is also an effective active measure to deter the threat of use of chemical weapons. An analysis of the views of indigenous and foreign experts on military chemical potential can be summarized into the following definition of military chemical potential of a country it is a chemical weapons system and all available industrial, technological, material, intellectual, information, and other capabilities (resources) the country can use to search for, develop, manufacture, and modernize existing and new weapons in principle and quality on the basis of toxic chemicals. Many experts claim that the Allies large stockpiles of chemical weapons that could be used in retaliation were an effective restraint holding back nazi germany from launching a chemical war at any time between 1939 and 1945 (table).

7 Military Chemical Security in Russia s National Security System 7 Stockpiles of Toxic Substances Belligerents Had during World War 7 T a b l e Country Stockpiles of toxic substances ( 000 tons) germany great Britain united states Japan u.s.s.r. 120* * produced between 1940 and 1945 in the postwar period, the u.s. and the u.s.s.r. continued to develop and improve their military chemical potentials. the approximately equal stockpiles of chemical weapons and scientific and technological capabilities to improve them was yet another deterrent for either side in the tough confrontation of the two different worldwide political systems. the Chemical Weapons Convention that came into force in 1997 requires all signatories to undertake to refrain from ever developing, producing, stockpiling, and using chemical weapons and to destroy all existing chemical weapons stockpiles. As prescribed by its national rules to implement the Convention that it ratified on november 5, 1997, the russian Federation passed laws applying to all activities banned for each Convention signatory to engage in. For example, Article 355 of the country s Criminal Code makes development, production, stockpiling, purchase or sale of chemical, biological, toxin, and any other type of WMd a punishable criminal offense, and under Article 356 of the Criminal Code it is a criminal offense to use WMd banned by an international treaty to which the russian Federation is a party. the current international treaties prohibit russia from using its military chemical potential as a deterrent. under the current circumstances, military chemical relies more heavily on passive measures, including: launching vigorous initiatives under international law to monitor compliance with relevant international treaties and agreements; keeping rcb defense forces in a high state of alert to be committed for their direct purpose; training the forces and the country s population to behave reasonably under chemical attack and providing them with reliable protection gear; developing and using skillfully whatever systems and equipment are needed to give timely warning of a chemical attack to the forces and civilians,

8 8 MilitAry thought individual and collective protection gear, prevention and treatment, and cleanup of the damage caused by toxic agents used in a chemical attack; operating the civil defense system efficiently; and monitoring around the clock the current state and prospects of foreign developments that might lead to the creation of new types of chemical weapons. practical implementation of this list of measures will, with the Chemical Weapons Convention to lean on, help respond flexibly to the emergence of military chemical threats, take adequate measures to neutralize them, and give reliable military chemical to the country. notes: 1. Strategiya natsional noy bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsiyi do 2020 goda [national strategy of the russian Federation in the period up to 2020]. docs/2009/05/ shtml. 2. Voyennaya doktrina Rossiyskoy Federatsiyi [Military doctrine of the russian Federation] Zarubezhnoye voyennoye obozreniye, # 6, 2012, p ohrana.ru/tags/исследование рынка. 5. proceedings.ndia.org/dod_cb/tutsday_am/winegar.pdf, p A. Fries, C. West, Khimicheskaya voyna [Chemical Warfare], translated from the english, high Military editorial Board, Moscow, 1923, p A.d. gorbovsky, Khimicheskoye oruzhiye - na svalku istoriyi [take Chemical Weapons to the Junkyard of history], Khimicheskaya i biologicheskaya bezopasnost [Chemical and Biological ], ## 2-3 (32-33), 2007, pp