IUPAC and OPCW—from reluctant support to active collaboration

Even before the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was established and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force, IUPAC was dealing with chemical challenges related to disarmament and produced several reports on aspects related to chemical-weapon issues. However, as the IUPAC archives reveal, this work was not supported with enthusiasm. This may explain the scepticism that was experienced when IUPAC was approached by OPCW in 2001 and asked to produce a report evaluating the scientific and technological advances that had occurred in the chemical sciences since 1993. Based on documents from the IUPAC archives and my own observations as a member of numerous IUPAC committees, this article gives an account of how difficulties were met and overcome and eventually paved the way for the productive collaboration IUPAC now enjoys with OPCW.