Syria's chemical weapons arsenal has rightly galvanized international attention. The chemical attacks against civilians have prompted Russia and the United States to put aside diplomatic tensions to devise a plan to eliminate the Syrian regime's stockpiles. And the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has been tasked with executing the Russian-U.S. plan, has just been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Obviously the dangers that such weapons pose do not end in Syria. In addition to the possibility of governments launching chemical attacks against their own people, there is the risk of terrorists using toxic agents, as they did in Iraq in 2007.
Indeed, for both state and nonstate actors, chemical arms are the easiest weapons of mass destruction to create, acquire, and use, owing partly to their ingredients' widespread availability.