weapons of mass destruction

Nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons with the potential to kill many people or to render a large area uninhabitable. Development and acquisition of nuclear weapons is controlled under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the use, production, and stockpiling of chemical weapons is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention (1997). The phrase and its acronym were particularly associated with the build-up to and execution of the Iraq War in 2003.