In these 5 lectures an overview will be presented of the current situation in arms control and disarmament, with special attention to the so-called weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological).
On nuclear weapons the following topics will be treated: physical principles on which they are based, their effects, materials essential for their construction, difficulty to produce these materials and to build nuclear weapons and nuclear explosive devices; historical development and current status of nuclear arsenals and of nuclear-weapon materials stocks; arms control and disarmament treaties aimed at constraining and reducing nuclear arsenals, preventing nuclear weapon proliferation, creating nuclear-weapon-free zones and eventually prohibiting nuclear weapons: present status of nuclear weaponry from the point of view of international law; the risk of nuclear terrorism and ways and means to address this danger: prospects of future developments in nuclear arms control and disarmament.
On chemical weapons: brief outline of their history, present stuatus of implementation of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention that bans them.
On biological weapons; brief outline of their nature, of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) that bans them, and of current negociations aimed at supplementing the BWC with adequate mechanisms of verification.
If time permits, an overview will also be given of other arms control developments: conventional forces in Europe, open skies, anti-personnel mines, small arms...