As a kind of mass destruction weapon,chemcial warfare agents(CAWs) have the characteristics of strong lethality,wide range of influence,difficult protection,easy production and release,which have been used in war conflicts since their birth,and resulting in great threats in modern asymmetric wars and terrorist attacks.Therefore,how to detect chemcial warfare agents in time has become a key research direction for homeland security all over the world.The current mainstream and potential detection techniques for chemical warfare agents are focused in this paper,and the basic principles for various detection techniques and their military and commercial applications are analyzed,as well as the latest research progress.Then,the main related plans of various countries in the world are introduced.Finally,the difficulties and future development of detection techniques for chemcial warfare agents are prospected.