Prohibition

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 7 analyses the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). The chapter contests existing claims that American acceptance of the BWC was purely self-interested in motivation. A close analysis of the archival evidence demonstrates that the taboo was a major factor in the US’s negotiation and ratification of the agreement. Moreover, the data reveal that a key rationale of the BWC was to cement the taboo as an intrinsic norm of international policymaking. The chapter considers this argument in the context of criticisms that the BWC is neither effective nor some great expression of normative feeling. The chapter engages with these claims to maintain that the agreement still constitutes the current mainstay of the taboo’s genealogy.