A sampling of what's available...
Columnists
Malcolm Dando
Biological indecision
The Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference yielded both progress and missed opportunities.
Dealing with advances in science at the Seventh BTWC Review Conference
The wild potential effects of fast-paced DNA sequencing and other new biotechnologies are not the only things to be worried about. We still lack a system to monitor and assess these advances.
Educating the life scientists
A simple, cost-effective way to help ensure biosecurity.
What the fight against disease can teach the biological weapons community
The Biological Weapons Convention has a problem: It is both for and against international cooperation. It's time to look at a model that works.
An auspicious moment for the BWC Review Conference?
Meaningful progress seems possible for the first time in years.
Science, technology, and the bioweapons treaty
Leaps and bounds in the life sciences are causing some to worry that the Biological Weapons Convention can't keep up with scientific progress.
Did we make a huge mistake over dual use?
Outmoded thinking about dual use in the life sciences unnecessarily focuses efforts to prevent bioterror and biowarfare on individual scientists, distracting us from enabling truly prophylactic policies.
More talk, better security: The need for wider debate on strengthening the BWC
The bioweapons treaty needs urgently to be set on a stronger course -- one in which it can better adapt to the ever-changing threat environment.
Teaching biosecurity
Senator Lugar and other politicians must work to ensure that biosecurity education is addressed during the BTWC Review Conference in 2011.
Science, development, and security: The Global Biological Resource Centre Network
A look at how an international group could bridge the gap between scientific and technical issues and common policies and practices.
New blood: Civil society helps shape the 2011 BTWC Review Conference agenda
As they noted rapid advances in the life sciences, non-governmental organizations contributed significantly to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention’s experts meeting.
Synthetic biology: Harbinger of an uncertain future?
Getting to grips with the implications of the rapid advances in the life sciences.
Neuroethicists are not saying enough about the problem of dual-use
Potential hostile misuses of neurotechnologies and neurological drugs should be examined as new dual-use issues emerge.
Reality check: No time to waste before the 2011 BWC Review Conference
Civil society and BWC member states must begin discussions now, rather than later, if they want to present viable options and strategies that will influence next year's conference.
From nose to brain: New route for chemical incapacitation?
Discoveries that drugs and bioregulators can quickly be routed to the brain through the nose illustrates the scope of dual-use threats and the need to prevent future misuse.
Better incorporating ethicists into the life sciences
As advances in the life sciences continue at a breakneck pace, bioethicists will be needed to guide researchers through serious dual-use dilemmas.
Down the rabbit hole of BWC verification
The inconsistent U.S. message on verification of the Biological Weapons Convention compared with other international treaties leaves some with nightmares.
Bringing a "culture of responsibility" to life scientists
After years of discussion around teaching a "culture of responsibility" to life scientists, it's about time to put talk into practice.
Profile
Malcolm Dando
A biologist, Dando researches international security at the University of Bradford's Department of Peace Studies. His expertise is in chemical and biological weapons, arms control, and biosecurity. An author and contributor to countless books on bioweapons and biotechnology, including The New Biological Weapons: Threat, Proliferation, and Control (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), Dando’s recent interests include how the ongoing revolution in the life sciences might open up possibilities for new forms of biological weapons. Prior to working at the University of Bradford, Dando held a Ministry of Defence funded fellowship in operational research at the University of Sussex. Since 2002, he has travelled extensively, focusing on the in-depth national implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
Columnist Resources
Recent Work
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"The Impact of Scientific and Technological Change"
Bioterrorism: Confronting a Complex Threat (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007) -
"Preventing the Future Military Misuse of Neuroscience"
Technology and Security (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) -
"Scientific Outlook for the Development of Incapacitants"
Incapacitating Biochemical Weapons: Promise or Peril? (Rowan and Littlefield, 2007) -
"A Scientific Advisory Panel for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention as an Element in the Web of Prevention"
The Web of Prevention: Biological Weapons, Life Sciences, and the Governance of Research (Earthscan Publications Limited, 2007) -
"A Hippocratic Oath for Life Scientists"
EMBO Reports (July 2006)
Recommended Links
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The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Website
Accurate, up-to-date information about the BTWC -
The Genomics Gateway
International treaties, conventions, standards, and guidelines applicable to biotechnology -
The Harvard/Sussex Program on CBW Armament and Arms Limitation
Interuniversity collaboration for research, communication, and training in support of informed public policy toward chemical and biological weapons -
Center for Nonproliferation Studies' Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program
Research on the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons -
BioWeapons Prevention Project
A project aimed at strengthening the norm against the use of disease as a weapon -
U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs
Detailed website dealing with all aspects of disarmament