Doctors, Diplomats and DARPA: National Security in the Bio-Era

Katie Drummond, Josh Michaud, Milton Leitenberg | World Politics Review | 2009-10-27

Global pandemics and war have long shaped human history. But due to our unprecedented ability to intervene in the spread and containment of disease as well as the recovery from injury, national security must increasingly be approached from a cellular and even a molecular level. WPR examines National Security in the Bio-Era.

From AIDS to Swine Flu: Global Cooperation on Emerging Diseases
By Josh Michaud
At first glance, the international community displayed an admirable level of cooperation and collective action in response to swine flu's emergence. But while some progress has been made in the way countries work together to confront deadly diseases, more work needs to be done, since all countries are made more vulnerable to pandemics when they fail to cooperate.

The Threat of Bioterrorism, Real and Imagined
By Milton Leitenberg
Following the "Amerithrax" scare of October 2001, the U.S. government authorized $57 billion for biological weapons prevention and defense. A close examination of the bioterrorism threat, however, suggests that the attention and expenditure devoted to it are significantly exaggerated. Worse still, in many ways the U.S. government's response since 2001 has increased biological weapons proliferation potential.

DARPA: Transforming Soldiers One Cell at a Time
By Katie Drummond
Today, the United States is fighting a new kind of war, on a battlefield populated by unmanned drones, biological threats and an enemy in civilian dress. Yet an impersonal war is still a deadly one, and with more troops living to recover from injury and relive the battle, their bodies and minds will inevitably bear trauma. Inevitably, that is, for now.

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