Dirty War is the first comprehensive look at Rhodesia’s top-secret use of chemical and biological weapons (CBW)  during their long counterinsurgency against native African nationalists.  

Having declared its independence from Great Britain in 1965,  the government—made up of European settlers and their descendants—almost immediately faced a growing threat from native African nationalists. In the midst of this long and terrible conflict, Rhodesia resorted to using chemical and biological weapons against an elusive guerrilla adversary.  A small team made up of a few scientists and their students at a remote  Rhodesian fort produced lethal agents for use. Cloaked in the strictest secrecy, these efforts were overseen by a battle-hardened and ruthless officer of Rhodesia’s Special Branch and his select team of policemen. Answerable only to the head of Rhodesian intelligence and the Prime Minister, these men—working alongside Rhodesia’s elite counterguerrilla military unit, the Selous Scouts—developed the ingenious means to deploy their poisons against the insurgents. 

The effect of the poisons and disease agents devastated the insurgent groups both inside Rhodesia and at their base camps in neighboring countries. At times in the conflict, the Rhodesians thought that their poisons effort would bring the decisive blow against the guerrillas. For months at a time, the Rhodesian use of CBW accounted for higher casualty rates than conventional weapons. In the end, however, neither CBW use nor conventional battlefield successes could turn the tide.  Lacking international political or economic support, Rhodesia’s fate from the outset was doomed. Eventually, the conflict was settled by the ballot box, and Rhodesia became independent Zimbabwe in April 1980.

Dirty War is the culmination of nearly two decades of painstaking research and interviews of dozens of former Rhodesian officers who either participated or were knowledgeable about the top-secret development and use of CBW. The book also draws on the handful of remaining classified  Rhodesian documents that tell the story of the CBW program. Dirty War combines all of the available evidence to provide a compelling account of how a small group of men prepared and used CBW to devastating effect against a largely unprepared and unwitting enemy.

Looking at the use of CBW in the context of the Rhodesian conflict, Dirty War provides unique insights into the motivation behind CBW development and use by states, especially by states combating internal insurgencies. As the norms against CBW use have seemingly eroded with CW use evident in Iraq and most recently in Syria, the lessons of the Rhodesian experience are all the more valid and timely.

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06/2022--(Book Review) "The Long, Cloudy History of Moscow's BW Program,"  Nonproliferation Review, DOI:10.1080.10736700.2022.2075642.

11/2021--(Online Referred Journal) "Biological Weapons in the 'Shadow War'," War on the Rocks, https://warontherocks.com/2011/11/biological-weapons-in-the-shadow-war/

09/2021 (Book Chapter) “Intelligence in Counterinsurgency: Lessons from the Rhodesian Experience,” in African Intelligence Services: Early Post-Colonial and Contemporary Perspectives (Boston, MA: Roman & Littlefield, September 2021)

03/2021 (Article) “Wrestling with Imponderables: Assessing Perceptions of Biological Weapons Utility,” Nonproliferation Review, (Spring 2021)

06/2020 (Article) "Twenty-first-century perspectives on the Biological Weapon Convention: Continued relevance or toothless paper tiger," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2020.1778365

01/2019--(Online Referred Journal) "Death in the Air: Revisiting the 2001 Anthrax Mailing and the Amerithrax INvestigation," War on the Rocks, https://warontherocks.com/2019/01/death-in-the-air-revisiting-the-2001-anthrax-mailings-and-the-amerithrax-investigation/

08/2017--(Online Referred Journal) "Long Ignored: The Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons Against Insurgents," War on the Rocks, https://warontherocks.com/2017/08/long-ignored-the-use-of-chemical-and-biological-weapons-against-insurgents/

03/2017--(Book) Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975-1980 (Solihull, UK: Helion Publishing, Co, 2017)

04/2013--(Article) C. Karvetski, K. Olson, D. Gantz, G. Cross, “Structuring and analyzing competing hypotheses with Bayesian networks for intelligence analysis,” EURO Journal on Decision Processes, 30 April 2013, doi 10.1007/s40070-013-0001-x.

10/2023--Presentation entitled State CBW Use in Assassination at Justus Liebig Universtät (University of Gieꞵen) at “Chemical and Biological Weapons: The Interconnectivity of Norms.” 

05/2023--Presentation entitled State Use of CBW in Assassinations Since 1946 at University of Swansea conference State-Sponsored Assassinations in International Politics, History, and Law.

01/2023--Podcast presentation on Rhodesian CBW effort to Poisons and Pestilence podcast hosted by Brett Edwards Ph.D., https://poisonsandpestilence.podbean.com/

12/2017--Presentation to the annual Jonathan Tucker Memorial CBW Symposium, entitled Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical, Biological Warfare, 1975 to 1980, National Defense University and Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Washington, DC.

06/2017--Podcast interview with Robert Herman, Outbreak News,  Rhodesia's top secret use of chemical and biological weapons: An interview with Dr Glenn Cross.  https://outbreaknewstoday.com/rhodesias-top-secret-use-chemical-biological-weapons-interview-dr-glenn-cross-32381/

07/2016--Panelist, Dogs That Haven’t Barked: Towards an Understanding of the Absence of Expected Technological Threats, Center for Global Security Research Workshop, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

02/2013--Presentation to the DARPA Defense Science Office’s Biological Sciences Seminar, entitled “Dirty War: The Rhodesian Bio-Chemical Offensive Program, 1975-1979.”

01/2013--Invited lecturer at Cornell University’s Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, entitled “Dirty Tricks: The Rhodesian CBW Effort.”

09/2013--Panel chair, Improving Intelligence Analysis of Emerging Biotechnology Threats Workshop, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, London, UK. 

09/2013--Discussant, Improving Intelligence Analysis of Emerging Biotechnology Threats Workshop, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, London, UK.

04/2008--Lecture at the 8th Annual IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Colloquium, entitled “Dirty War: Anatomy of a Biological Event (Rhodesia), 1978 to 1980.”

04/2007--Poster Presentation at the 7thAnnual IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Colloquium, entitled “Project Argus: Indications & Warnings of Covert Biological Weapons Activities”