It's clear from this roundtable discussion that recent advances in biotechnology are outstripping the legal and normative bulwarks designed to prevent the misuse of the life sciences for hostile purposes. The challenge of managing biorisks is complicated by the fact that the relevant technologies are diffusing globally and are driven primarily by innovation in the … Continued

To really bring the pain, the United States and its allies need to coordinate its financial sanction against highly targeted Russian energy and financial services companies—and not so much the broad-based, indiscriminate financial weapons like SWIFT

A former Army Ranger—who happens to have led the team that established Defense Department policy on autonomous weapons—explains in a Bulletin interview what these weapons are good for, what they’re bad at, and why banning them is going to be a very difficult challenge.

A US official worries that the conflict in Ukraine could lead to damage at laboratories holding dangerous pathogens.

Anyone who has followed recent headlines knows there has been much tension recently between the rulers of Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran—including the execution of a Shiite cleric who had criticized the kingdom’s treatment of its Shiite minority, the subsequent ransacking of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran two days later, a Saudi cutoff of … Continued

US and NATO support to Ukraine should be firm, but calibrated to avoid nuclear escalation, a former US ambassador to Russia and former deputy secretary-general of NATO argues.

A wargame reveals how the United States and its allies are unprepared for attacks on nuclear power plants in Europe.

Ukrainian President Zelensky has made repeated, emotional calls as Russia continues its assault. But if Western policymakers leave their emotions about war unchecked, they may not make the best policy decisions.

Since an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire was announced in November, Israel's Iron Dome system has been hailed as proof that missile defense has emerged from the realm of the theoretical and assumed the status of a real battlefield weapon. It's also been called a game changer for the Israel-Palestine conflict. The verdict is in, crowed Max Boot, a defense expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York: "Missile defense works."

The Biden administration’s task could not be more daunting. But wise political decisions can mitigate the worst effects of collective death anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, while a decrease in national dread makes for better, fairer, and more rational politics. Confronting death anxiety together can be a source of personal and collective renewal.

The possibility that extremist groups may attempt to deliberately spread SARS-CoV-2—the virus causing the current pandemic—should not be ignored. In fact, one of the primary limiting factors to such an attack—recruiting humans willing to infect themselves—does not apply in this case; potential perpetrators would come from the ranks of those already infected. So we are faced with a genuinely challenging task: preemption.

We've been lucky. The avian influenza (H5N1) virus that first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997 -- which killed six and caused 18 serious illnesses -- has not acquired the ability to spread easily from person to person. Virtually all of the reported cases have involved contact with infected birds or bird products.

The announcement sent ripples throughout the international health community: On April 23, 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that seven children suffering from paralysis in the poor former Soviet country of Tajikistan were victims of poliomyelitis. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus had probably arrived with a traveler from India. It was the first importation of polio into Europe since 2002, when the region was certified as polio-free.

On December 20, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled that the "use of gas against terrorists during the Moscow theatre siege was justified." It did not, that is, violate the right to

It’s good to be cautious about any powerful new technology, but the best approach to Crispr and gene drives will be one based on empirical findings rather than hype.