Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T00:40:14.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

United States biodefense, international law, and the problem of intent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Christian Enemark
Christian Enemark*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Sciences The University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA) Canberra ACT 2600 Australia christian.enemark@unsw.adfa.edu.au

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Since the anthrax attacks of 2001 in the United States, annual U.S. government spending on biodefense programs has increased enormously. U.S. biodefense was once exclusively the domain of military agencies and was aimed principally at protecting battlefield troops against the products of state-run biological warfare programs. Today, it is engaged in and promoted by a variety of government agencies contemplating “bioterrorism,” and it is aimed principally at protecting the American civilian population. I ask if certain U.S. biodefense policies, pointedly those funding “threat assessment” projects, make biological attacks paradoxically more likely by undermining international norms against deliberately causing disease. I conclude that they do and consider the ramifications of this answer.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 24 , Issue 1-2 , September 2005 , pp. 32 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

References

1. Schuler, A., “Billions for Biodefense: Federal Agency Biodefense Funding, FY2001–FY2005,” Biosecurity and Bioterrorism 2004; 2(2): 86–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Shane, S., Bioterror Fight May Spawn New Risks, 27 June 2004, Available at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.biodefense27jun27,0,6098679.story (accessed 29 June 2004).Google Scholar
3. Cha, A. E. “Computers Simulate Terrorism's Extremes,” Washington Post, 4 July 2005, A01.Google Scholar
4. King, J. and Strauss, H., “The Hazards of Defensive Biological Warfare Programs,” in Wright, S., ed., Preventing a Biological Arms Race (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1990).Google Scholar
5. Kissinger, H. A., National Security Decision Memorandum (NSDM) 35, United States Policy on Chemical Warfare Program and Bacteriological/Biological Research Program, from National Security Advisory Henry A. Kissinger to the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, etc., November 25, 1969., 7 December 2001, Available at http://www.gwu.edu/∼nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB58/RNCBW8.pdf (accessed 27 May 2005).Google Scholar
6. “The Scowcroft Memorandum,” CBW Conventions Bulletin 2002, (57):2.Google Scholar
7. Leitenberg, M., “Distinguishing Offensive from Defensive Biological Weapons Research,” Critical Reviews in Microbiology 2003, 29(3): 223–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Fact Sheet: National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, 24 February 2005, Available at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4336 (accessed 13 April 2005).Google Scholar
9. Korch, G., Leading Edge of Biodefense: The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, Lecture to the Department of Defense Pest Management Workshop, Jacksonville Naval Air Station, 9 February 2004, 2004, Available at http://www.cbwtransparency.org/archive/nbacc.pdf (accessed 26 May 2005).Google Scholar
10. Leitenberg, M., Leonard, J., and Spertzel, R., “Biodefense Crossing the Line,” Politics and the Life Sciences, September 2003, 22(2): 2–3, e-pub 17 May 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL), Part 2: Weapons of Mass Destruction Technologies. Washington DC: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology, 1998 February.Google Scholar
12. Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, 30 August 2005, Available at http://www.state.gov/t/vci/rls/rpt/51977.htm#chapter6 (accessed 22 December 2005).Google Scholar
13. Miller, J., Engelberg, S., and Broad, W., “U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits,” New York Times, 4 September 2001, A1.Google Scholar
14. Miller, J., Engelberg, S., and Broad, W., Germs: The Ultimate Weapon. (Sydney: Simon & Schuster, 2001).Google Scholar
15. Rosenberg, B. H., Defending against Biodefence: The Need for Limits, January 2003, Available at http://www.acronym.org.uk/bwc/spec01.htm (accessed 24 April 2003).Google Scholar
16. Tucker, J. B., “A Farewell to Germs: The U.S. Renunciation of Biological and Toxin Warfare, 1969–70,” International Security 2002, 27(1): 107–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17. Zanders, J. P., Hart, J., and Kuhlau, F., “Chemical and Biological Weapon Developments and Arms Control,” in SIPRI Yearbook 2002: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
18. Ruppe, D., Proposed U.S. Biological Research Could Challenge Treaty Restrictions, Experts Charge, 30 June 2004, Available at http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004_6_30.html#8736549A (accessed 21 April 2005).Google Scholar
19. Draft Recommendations for a Code of Conduct for Biodefense Programs, November 2002, Available at http://www.fas.org/bwc/papers/code.pdf (accessed 30 May 2005).Google Scholar
20. Pomerantsev, A. P., Staritsin, N. A., Mockov, Y. V., and Marinin, L. I., “Expression of Cereolysine AB Genes in Bacillus anthracis Vaccine Strain Ensures Protection against Experimental Hemolytic Anthrax Infection,” Vaccine, 1997, 15(17/18): 1846–1850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21. “U.S. Approves Development of Enhanced Anthrax,” Arms Control Today, 2001, 31(9): 26.Google Scholar
22. Ault, A., “Shifting Tactics in the Battle against Influenza,” Science, 2004, 303(5662): 1280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23. Proliferation: Threat and Response (Technical Annex), 1997, Available at http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/prolif97/annex.html#technical (accessed 30 May 2005).Google Scholar
24. Reed, L. Shulman, S., “A Perilous Path to Security? Weighing U.S. ‘Biodefense’ against Qualitative Proliferation,” in Wright, S., (ed.). Biological Warfare and Disarmament: New Problems, New Perspectives. (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002).Google Scholar
25. Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP) Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Defense, 2005.Google Scholar
26. Wright, S. and Ketcham, S., “The Problem of Interpreting the U.S. Biological Defense Research Program,” in Wright, S., (ed.). Preventing a Biological Arms Race (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990).Google Scholar
27. Jackson, R. J., Ramsay, A. J., Christensen, C. D., Beaton, S., Hall, D. F., and Ramshaw, I. A., “Expression of Mouse Interleukin-4 by a Recombinant Ectromelia Virus Suppresses Cytolytic Lymphocyte Responses and Overcomes Genetic Resistance to Mousepox,” Journal of Virology, 2001, 75(3): 1205–1210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28. Roos, R., Scientists Research Antidotes to Super Mousepox Virus, 6 November 2003, Available at http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/bt/smallpox/news/nov0603mousepox.html (accessed 8 November 2003).Google Scholar
29. Wright, S., Taking Biodefense Too Far, November/December 2004, Available at http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/nd04/nd04wright.html (accessed 1 November 2004).Google Scholar
30. Smith, D., “Call to Stop Deadly Viruses Getting into Wrong Hands,” Sydney Morning Herald, 29 December 2003: 5.Google Scholar
31. U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses, 29 October 2003, Available at http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4318 (accessed 5 November 2003).Google Scholar
32. Tucker, J. B., “Biological Threat Assessment: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?” Arms Control Today 2004; 34:13–19.Google Scholar
33. Peiris, J. S. M., Lai, S. T., Poon, L. L. M., Guan, Y., Yam, L. Y. C., Lim, W., et al., “Coronavirus as a Possible Cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome,” The Lancet, 2003, 361(9366): 1319–1325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34. Tucker, J. B., Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox. (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001).Google Scholar
35. The Threat of Bioterrorism and the Spread of Infectious Diseases, United States Senate. Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001.Google Scholar
36. Annex to Final Declaration on Confidence Building Measures. Geneva: Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and On Their Destruction, 1991. Report No.: BWC/CONF.III/23.Google Scholar
37. Wheelis, M. and Dando, M., “Back to Bioweapons?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2003, 59(1): 41–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38. Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II. (London: British Medical Association, 2004).Google Scholar
39. Alibek, K., Biohazard. (London: Arrow, 1999).Google Scholar
40. Atlas, R. M. and Reppy, J., “Globalizing Biosecurity,” Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 2005, 3(1): 51–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
41. Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism. (Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences, 2004.)Google Scholar
42. Chyba, C. F. and Greninger, A. L., “Biotechnology and Bioterrorism: An Unprecedented World,” Survival, 2004, 46(2): 143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
43. Guillemin, J., Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).Google Scholar
44. United States, Annual CBM Return, April 2004, Available at http://www.opbw.org/cbms/annual_cbms/USA_cbm_2004.pdf (accessed 31 December 2005).Google Scholar
45. Broad, W., “Book Says Pre-Gulf War Discovery Raised Germ Warfare Fears,” New York Times, 7 June 1998, A6.Google Scholar
46. Kelley, M. and Coghlan, J., “Mixing Bugs and Bombs,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2003, 59(5): 24–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar