Professor Schmidt and CHES team at OPCW States Meeting, the Hague, November 2025Thirty Years of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

12 December 2025

CHES members, Professor Ulf Schmidt and Dr David Peace, were invited by the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society to join the German delegation as civil society experts at the annual States Meeting of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Hague, November 2025.

They were joined by their colleagues Professor Bretislav Freidrich (Fritz Haber Institute) and Dr Paul Walker (Greencross International) who alongside Professor Schmidt gave a presentation of their jointly edited book Thirty Years of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC): Histories, Achievements, Challenges. The presentation was introduced by the Permanent Representative of Germany to the OPCW, Ambassador Thomas Schieb

The Open Access book, Thirty Years of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC): Histories, Achievements, Challenges, which is part of the ERC Synergy Project ‘Taming the European Leviathan’ and received generous support from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The volume will be available online as Open Access, or for purchase via Springer Nature, in early 2026.

Ambassador Schieb said that he was proud to have been part of the volume, which resulted from a conference hosted at the Fritz Haber Institute in 2023 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the destruction of all declared chemical weapons stockpiles among signatory states.

Professor Schmidt highlighted the contributions to the volume by government officials, renowned scholars, and esteemed members of civil society. The volume is divided into the following thematic sections:

1. Politics and Diplomacy: Perspectives on CWC
2. Histories of Chemical Weapons in the 20th Century 
3. Participation of Civil Society in CWC Implementation
4. CWC – A Model for the Abolition of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
5. Chemical Weapons and Terrorism: Ongoing and Future Challenges
6. Information Warfare: The Power of Images

Professor Schmidt gave a presentation of the chapter ‘Coping with Crisis: Rumours, Science and Poison Warfare in Inter-War Europe’, that had been co-written with Professor Jo Fox (University of Newcastle). He outlined how rumours created different systems of knowledge and scientific inquiry and highlighted how rumour construction in the Meuse Valley illuminates the significant psychological impact of chemical warfare on populations, the continuity of pre-existing belief systems in the face of scientific analysis, and the persistence of international mistrust.

Dr Peace presented his research from the chapter ‘Woe to You that You are a Grandchild: Mutations and the Ethical Case Against WMDs Among Post-War British Geneticists’. He explored the intersection between genetic research and ethical opposition to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) among post-war geneticists in the United Kingdom by focussing on the mutagenic effects of radiation and chemical exposure, highlighting the cross-generational impact of WMDs.