Publication

On 4 January 2016, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced that the process of destroying the Syrian government's chemical weapons was complete. Uh, let’s not be too hasty here, observes this commentary. It highlights 1) the difficulties of verifying the honesty and accuracy of the Syrian government's declarations; 2) the problems in investigating the continued use of chemical weapons by any participant in the country's ongoing civil war; and 3) the challenges of investigating the Syrian government's possession and use of chemical weapons in the future.