The BLIX WMDC Report:

Biological and Toxin Weapons Related Issues

by Graham S. Pearson

Introduction
          The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC) was established at the end of June 2003 by the late Foreign Minister of Sweden, Anna Lindh, to create an independent international commission to examine how the world could tackle the problem of weapons of mass destruction. The Swedish Government invited Dr. Hans Blix to set up and chair the Commission.

          The mandate for the Commission was to identify desirable and achievable directions for international cooperation. It should present realistic proposals aimed at the greatest possible reduction of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction. These should comprise both short-term and long-term approaches and aim at preventing the further spread of weapons as well as at their reduction and elimination. The scope of the investigation should be comprehensive and include nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons and the means of delivering them, as well as possible links between these issues and terrorists.

The membership of the Commission was as follows:
Hans Blix, Chairman
Dewi Fortuna Anwar
Alexei G. Arbatov
Marcos de Azambuja
Alyson J.K. Bailes
Jayantha Dhanapala
Gareth Evans
Patricia Lewis
Masashi Nishihara
William J. Perry
Vasantha Raghavan
Cheikh Sylla
Prince El Hassan bin Talal
Pan, Zhenqiang

          The Commission met ten times between January 2004 and its final meeting in March 2006. The CommissionÕs Report entitled Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Arms was issued on 1 June 2006 when the WMDC Chairman Dr. Hans Blix presented this to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York. The report contains sixty concrete proposals on how the world could be freed of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The Secretary-General urged the international community to study the report and consider its recommendations.