Locking Pandora's Box and Preventing Deliberate Disease

摘要

This paper will review the strategic events in biological warfare development since the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and recommend methods to mitigate the dangers of using disease as a weapon. Biological warfare (BW) is cheap, efficient, unselective, and here. BW is an ideal terrorist weapon. The terrorist acts of 11 September 2001 demonstrated the level of sophistication of terrorists and state sponsorship of terrorist organizations. The number of countries possessing biological weapons has grown significantly since the signing of the 1972 BWC. A network of protection against BW attacks by either rogue states or non-state actors can be built. The United States must support and strengthen the BWC Protocol, cooperate with the former Soviet states to reduce the proliferation to rogue states and sub-state actors of biological weapons and biological weapon technology. The U.S. must improve rapid epidemic surveillance and pathogen detection. The U.S. must improve active and passive protection of measures for the military and civilian populace. Finally, the Office of Homeland Security in cooperation with the Department of Defense must organize a unified command plan for a coordinated response to large scale BW attacks.