Dr Caitríona McLeish attends the OPCWs Conference on Countering Chemical Terrorism

On 7 June 2018, Dr Caitríona McLeish joined over 200 governmental experts, academics and industry representatives for a two-day Conference on Countering Chemical Terrorism. The conference was held at the OPCWs headquarters in The Hague.

The conference examined the threat posed to international security and to the Chemical Weapons Convention by chemical terrorism, and considered approaches to preventing and responding to the terrorist use of chemical weapons. In her panel talk, Caitríona reflected on how do we make sense of data relating the chemical terrorism, noting that when the data gets complex we use narratives to communicate. She also noted that the Convention contains a tool that can be used to ‘lean into’ complexity, namely the General Purpose Criterion, which if properly implemented can shape our responses to the threat of chemical terrorism.

A press release from the OPCW about the event can be read here. A link to the opening address by the Director-General of the OPCW Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü and the keynote address by the Executive Director Europol Ms Catherine De Bolle can also be found on that page.