The use of chemical weapons continues to be a very extreme and persistent threat to countries around the globe. This committee will focus on how a state can balance between protecting its own state sovereignty and ensuring that international security is maintained, all whilst preventing and limiting the usage and production of chemical weapons during warfare. In this Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC), delegates will be examining how international law and state responsibility interact when tasked with addressing chemical weaponry as threats, as well as the challenges that arise when international enforcement conflicts with national interests.

The Chemical Weapons Convention was created following the widespread use of poison gas during World War I, when the usage of chlorine and mustard gas caused mass destruction and completely changed the nature of warfare. The creation of such weaponry reflects the effort to prevent chemical weapons from being used in the future, even though shortly after, during the Iran-Iraq War, chemical agents were still used on a large scale against civilian populations. These are some of the key issues delegates must consider as they examine how enforcement should work in practice and what can be done in response to these concerns without overstepping state sovereignty. At its core, delegates must ask themselves: how should the global response to chemical weapons be shaped to effectively prevent their use while still respecting the independence of states?