1. Introduction The Syrian Chemical Weapons Game was a series of events from July 2012 till

Armies started to use gas in WWI. Two of the most common gases were chlorine and mustard. Many were killed using these gases. Chemical weapons were extremely effective during WWI. By the end of WWI, 1,250,000 gas casualties occurred. Of these, 91,000 were fatalities. Chemical technology continued to be used in WWII, which killed even more. It killed so many people that chemical war was banned and considered inhumane. In 1968, the Chemical Warfare Convention occurred, banning the use of gas and stockpiling chemical weapons. Even though they were banned, the early ideas of gas technology and chemical warfare were advanced and were recently used in the Middle East. Chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government against the Syrian population. This presents another example of the impact of WWI technology on modern times. Despite being widely recognized as horrific, efficient chemical weapons remain a temptation to some governments

Some groups who use chemical and biological weapons is the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq or ISIS and other terrorist groups have carried out attacks in the middle east. According to the Syrian government the

Fear that terrorist could potentially get their hands on Syrian chemical weapons were elevated upon news that Bashar Assad’s military had used chemical weapons against civilians in Syria (Borger, 2013). These actions clearly crossed the “red line” that President Obama had drawn. Speculation on what the

Experts believe that terrorist use of chemical agents is an event with low probability, but potentially high consequences. While terrorist groups may or may not have an increased interest in chemical agent acquisition and use, the domestic vulnerability of the United States to chemical attack remains an issue. Both the United States and Russia have signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and are reducing, and eventually eliminating, their chemical weapon stockpiles.1 The possibility that terrorist groups might obtain insecure chemical weapons led to increased scrutiny of declared Libyan chemical weapon stockpiles following the fall of the Qadhafi regime. Experts have expressed similar concerns regarding the

With the Syrian conflict starting as a civil war and then escalating into a conflict amongst many other countries I can now understand the how this escalation happened. Within our simulation I could try to compare the outside forces looking inward into a country. As a comparison Krussia would be our Syria, outside forces were sanctioning them to relinquish their terrorists and almost freezing them out of many of our country trades. This had happened to Syria on May 18, 2011 with the US imposing against Syria with the US Treasury Department saying this, “...any property in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons in which the individuals listed in the Annex have an interest is blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them…” after this it was a domino effect; the European Union banned the import of Syrian oil and formed a sanction against Syrian government because of their mistreatment of the people. From our simulation and our class lecture this seems to be a credible commitment problem within the syrian government to its people. With many outside sources trying to form a collective action solution for Syria and with the Syrian people wanting their basic Human Rights it was a double edge sword for the government. Recently there has been action taken against Syria though with a warning to evacuate portions of syria surrounding a government airforce base which supposedly were the warships that had attacked the city of Khan Sheikhoun and had chemical weapons loaded onto warplanes. This statement from BBC after the chemical bombing says, “Activists and witnesses say warplanes attacked Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Idlib, early on Tuesday [April 4], when many people were asleep…The explosion sent a yellow

As early is 2013 the deadly gas has been used in Damascus and Khan al-Assal attacks. This is a terrible reminder that chemicals such as sarin are still be developed to be used as weapons. According to Sullivan "U.S. has obtained fresh evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in an attack and that taking military action against the government of President Bashar al Assad is needed (2013, para 1). This attack did spark outrage from the U.S. and other countries but no military response occurred against

The genocide in Syria had begun in the early 2011. The Syrian president has cracked down, and started to do brutal things to the people. They used tanks, artillery, and attack helicopters against the protesters. On August 21, 2013, they started to use a new chemical weapon. The chemical weapon had killed over 1,400 people. The invoice of these chemical weapons has reached about 240,000. About 12 million men, women, and children were forced to flee from their homes, and houses.

During the civil war that broke out in Syria between the Syrian Government under the Assad Regime and the various rebel groups each backed by differing allies, fatalities have been common with firefights often erupting between the groups. However, the most terrifying weapon that has arisen from the fighting was the resurrection of the long prohibited use chemical weapons. In an article by Anthony Deutsch of Reuters it states “The findings provide the first official confirmation of use of sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, in Syria since it agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, which included sulfur mustard… Syria is supposed to have completely surrendered the toxic chemicals 18 months ago. Their use violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.” Similarly, in an article comparing the use of chemical weapons to conventional

Iran and Iraq had been in war since 1980 and Iran had used chemical weapons in the war since 1984 against enemy soldiers but in 1988 something even worse happened – chemical weapons were used against civilians. This was a difficult time for Western countries who were allies with Iraq because using chemical weapons was considered illegal by international rules but not by Iraq – and allies chose to close one eye. In this essay I am going to discuss when and where were chemical weapons used, by and against whom and how did Western countries react.

Iraq and its chemical attacks against the Kurds should have been a wake call for the United States and other western countries. Despite proof that Iraqi forces and leadership were not afraid of United Nations sanctions for using chemical weapons against civilians in a campaign of genocide, sales of dual-use equipment and supplies to Iraq continued. Even after the Halabja chemical attacks (1988) against the Kurds, No serious efforts were made by the United Nations nor numerous countries to curb the procurement of dual-use equipment by Iraq. From 1990 through 1996, UN member states were allowed a free hand in interpreting what goods they considered to be suitable for export to Iraq. (CIA 2007) Such a weak interpretation in inexcusable.

New information has surfaced about the chemical attack crisis in Sarmin, Syria in March of this year. BCC reports that five Syrian people were killed in this attack, including three children. According to a leading chemical weapons expert, it is now being suspected that mustard gas has been used in a recent attack. The suspect? The Islamic State (IS) militants. The IS are a terrorist group that are currently occupying many parts of Syria. Chemical weapons have been outlawed in Syria via a decision of the UN two years ago. Still the Syrian government has been blamed for some of the chemical attacks. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied the accusations that they are to blame for the chemical attacks, however,

As of recent, there is an ongoing debate over the response of the Obama administration related to the events occurring in Syria and the potential violation by the Syrian government of customary international law and relevant treaties and conventions in the use of chemical weapons against its own people. The conflict itself has history which is required to be thoroughly examined before conclusions can be placed and actions are to be carried out. The Syrian Civil War has not only affected the lives of Syria’s citizens but has becoming a pressing issue in direct international relations between countries like Russia and the United States. Obama’s administration has their own response to the crisis at hand and believes that a military strike is a fully legal move to make given the situation present at hand. According to the evidence, it would seem possible that a violation has not occurred and that the threat by Obama’s administration to use force in the Syrian crisis stands on illegitimate grounds because the proceedings are done by Syrian government on their own grounds. However the atrocious actions committed by the Assad regime could in fact provide legality to military intervention by the United States. Finally, the focus will be to determine whether chemical weapons are in fact the sole factor for international intervention.

The threat of chemical weapon attack is very real; either in conventional warfare or by a lone wolf terrorist group. This fact is buttress by the facts in the reading assignments, continue efforts by some government to acquire chemical weapon technology, and open declaration by some terrorist groups of their intention to use it if they can lay their hand on it.

Chemical weapons are known to be one of the most dangerous weapons ever created, but the general population is unaware of what a chemical weapon is and why it is dangerous, this is one of the major reason why not enough has been done to prohibit chemical weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention defines chemical weapons as “toxic chemicals contained in a delivery system such as a bomb or a shell, that causes death, injury, incapacitation or sensory harm.” The effects of chemical weapons make it very dangerous and are one of the reasons it is still used after one hundred years since its introduction. Chemical weapons have been used in Syria and Israel unfortunately against civilian targets with lethal repercussions. Regrettably, Syria and Israel are not the only countries in the world to have chemical weapons. An estimate by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs explains that the top twenty countries with the largest armed forces have chemical weapons stockpiles, with Russia and the United States of America possessing about seventy thousand metric tonnes of chemical agent. If the international community continues to ignore the major issue of chemical weapons, the world is still at risk if countries continue to keep their very large stockpiles of lethal chemical weapons.