The use of chemical weapons in the 1935-36 Italo-Ethiopian War

Lina Grip and John Hart*

*Lina Grip is currently completing a Master's degree in international relations at Stockholm University. John Hart is a Senior Researcher at SIPRI.

I. Introduction

          On 3 October 1935 the Second Italo-Abyssinian War (also referred to as the Second Italo-Ethiopian War) began when Italian forces crossed into the territory of present-day Ethiopia (also referred to as the Ethiopian Empire or Abyssinia). Tensions between the countries dated to at least 1887, when Italy had also invaded Ethiopia. (Italian forces were defeated by Abyssinia at the Battle of Adowa on 1 Mar. 1896.) This loss and a desire to acquire a larger colonial presence motivated the Italian decision to attack in 1935.

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Raising Non-Proliferation Barriers: WMD and Non-State Actors

Nikita Smidovich
UN Office for Disarmament Affairs

(This article presents the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the UN Secretariat)

          The proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction together with their means of delivery present real challenges to the survival of human societies. With rapid advances in application of dual-use technologies worldwide and changes in geopolitical situations, these challenges have not remained static but are evolving. Often hard earned gains on one front are being offset by setbacks on other fronts. A major threat which has clearly manifested itself in recent decades is the attempts to acquire or spread weapons of mass destruction by individuals or entities acting outside of the control or authority of a government: the so-called non-State actors.

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Jerry has gone

          One of the saddest moments we have ever had in our reports to the ASA/CBMTS family is this note on one of our most distinguished CBMTS family members, Dr Jerome Donlon, Chief Scientist, BARDA, DHHS. We were informed of Jerry's passing by his wife Dr. Mildred Donlon, Millie, also one of our most esteemed family members and a world renown DARPA scientist.

          Jerry was much more than a distinguished member of the CBMTS. He was at the very heart of what we have been doing with the CBMTS since symposia inception and implementation in 1994. And that was to bring this sometimes unruly group of the world's most distinguished professionals together to surface, explore, define and delineate the most difficult problems and put them into workable approaches and pathways to concrete solutions. Jerry, with one of the broadest science and medical backgrounds across our sometimes convoluted arena, was noted for his penetrating questions of each presenter.

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