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October, 2009 - National Security in the Bio-Era
October 27, 2009
National Security in the Bio-Era
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.
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.
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.
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.
