Weapons Inspection Team Knowing the history of chemical weapons and their devastating effects will help explain the reasons for the development of the Weapons Inspection Team and why their success is vital for world peace. This document will provide a small part of the history of chemical weapons, discuss the history of weapons inspection teams, and explain how members are selected and trained. Incidents of the use of weapons of mass destruction will be mentioned which explains the reason for the development of weapons inspection teams. History of Chemical Weapons Chemical warfare has been used in warfare for thousands of years as a means of lethally fighting battle. Just to name a few examples of the devastation, chlorine and phosgene gases were used during World War I and were dispensed from canisters, causing approximately 90,000 deaths and over a million casualties during the war (Mass, 2013). The apparatus for distributing these weapons developed enormously during the first half of the twentieth century, increasing the alarming capacity of these weapons to kill. The United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War maintained huge stockpiles of chemical weapons sufficient to eliminate much of the human race and animal life on Earth. In 1980, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran during the war and in 1988; Iraq used mustard gas and nerve agents on Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq. Images of the terrible attack on Kurdish civilians were widespread and the world was stunned by the horrific devastation. These past events accelerated negotiations in Geneva on the Chemical Weapons Convention, which had already been underway for 12 years. The world was terrified by the potential threat posed by the use of chemical weapons by terrorists... middle of paper... biological science and technology can be developed safely and securely, so that they bring benefits, not dangers . " (Secretary-General, 2011). Remarks of the Secretary-General at the Seventh Review Conference of the BWC, 5 December 2011 Works Cited Gregory, S. (2002). Who are those inspectors?. Time, 160(25), 26Mass, H. (2013). A Brief History of Chemical Warfare. Retrieved from http://theweek.com/article/index/249224/a-brief-history-of-chemical-warfare Wittlaan, J. (2014). Retrieved from http://unoda-web.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BWC_Fact_Sheet_Apr_2014.pdfWittlaan, J. (2014).Brief History of Chemical Weapons Use. www .opcw.org/about-chemical-weapons/history-of-cw-use/Wittlaan, J.(2014).Fact Sheet.http://unoda-web.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads / 2014/04/SGM_Fact_Sheet_March_2014.pdf