The recent news that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death was caused by epibatidine — a South American frog toxin — has reignited interest in state use of poisons and toxins in assassinations. Although state use of such compounds has a long history, the erosion of the norms prohibiting assassinations and chemical and biological weapons increases the likelihood of future assassinations using poisons and toxins. As demonstrated in the recent targeting of the Iranian leadership in Operation Eric Fury and in the assassinations of prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the assassination norm has collapsed. The norms against chemical The post Silent Killers, Not Signals: Why States Use Poison in Assassinations appeared first on War on th