July 8, 2024

Bolstering Biosecurity Amid the Biotechnology Revolution

The rapid pace of novel technological change, referred to as “emerging technologies,” is challenging our ability to devise policy and governance apace. This is particularly true in the life sciences and biotechnology, where the current tools used for promoting biosecurity via policy and governance are becoming outdated.

Aug. 18, 2023

2023 Biodefense Posture Review

The Biodefense Posture Review was a whole of DOD effort to develop guidance to achieve National Defense Strategy priorities and address biological threats - especially those with strategic consequences for the U.S. military.

April 30, 2023

How Emerging Technologies Become Emerging Threats: Workshop Report

Identifying how emerging technologies contribute to, or constitute emerging threats can better prepare society to take the appropriate actions to mitigate risks and possibly lead to measures that ensure better governance. The participants of a workshop devoted to examining this question found that social, cultural, political, economic, and other factors contribute to how emerging technologies may become emerging threats. This paper summarizes these discussions and conclusions.

Aug. 18, 2021

Taking Stock of the National Stockpile: Modernizing for a Dynamic Response

Many have acknowledged that the COVID19 pandemic was not a failure of our imagination – we’ve been preparing for such an event for decades by building biotechnologies for biosurveillance and medicines, conducting exercises, and stockpiling of medical supplies – furthermore, response to a spreading illness in many ways is not rocket science: treat the sick, protect the vulnerable, and stop the spread – mainly accomplished via the tools and products of biotechnology. Many are now asking, what could we have done better in the pandemic response?

Aug. 12, 2021

Biotech to the Future

Listen as CSWMD's Dr. Diane DiEuliis and Austin Walne, Partner at ARTIS Ventures, speak to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Tech Unmanned podcast about emerging biotechnologies. The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual and not the organization.

July 28, 2021

“Designer Biology” and the Need for Biosecurity-by-Design

CSWMD's Dr. Diane DiEuliis and Dr. James Giordano, Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry and Cyber-SMART Center, Georgetown University are featured in the latest issue of CBRNe Society's NCT Magazine.

March 11, 2021

Want to Grow the Economy? Try Fermenting It Instead

U.S. industry’s distribution system and supply chains were vulnerable before COVID, but pandemic-related disruptions to supply chains fully exposed this already alarming problem. U.S. manufacturers have relied too heavily on foreign materials for production, and the steady off-shoring of critical industries over a course of decades has reduced direct control of vital defense-related manufacturing should it be needed.

Nov. 10, 2020

Security Implications of Emerging Biotechnologies

June 2016 — On April 26th, 2016, the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD) at National Defense University held a workshop to explore “Security Implications of Emerging Biotechnologies.” Participants from government, NGOs and academia discussed opportunities and challenges of a new era of biotechnology.

Strategic Assessment 2020: Into a New Era of Great Power Competition Oct. 26, 2020

Weapons of Mass Destruction, Strategic Deterrence, and Great Power Competition

Mr. Paul Bernstein and others examine the role of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in great power competition in the 2020 Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) Strategic Assessment.

Strategic Assessment 2020: Into a New Era of Great Power Competition Oct. 26, 2020

Contemporary Great Power Technological Competitive Factors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In the latest Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) Strategic Assessment, Dr. T.X. Hammes and Dr. Diane DiEuliis explore how the convergence of new technologies is creating a fourth industrial revolution that will transform almost every aspect of 21st-century life.

April 27, 2020

Beyond 1918: Bringing Pandemic Response into the Present, and Future

April 27, 2020 — The current pandemic gives us an opportunity to envision new tools, methods, and response policies that leverage emerging technologies, which, if adopted and prudently employed, would enable capability to far better predict, prepare, if not prevent the “next” biosecurity war, and not merely repeat the errors of the “last”. 

April 13, 2020

Ready or Not: Regaining Military Readiness during COVID19

In the latest Institute for National Strategic Studies "Strategic Insight," Dr. Diane DiEuliis and Dr. Laura Junor examine what the Department of Defense needs to maintain force readiness during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Force readiness and management will be improved by rapidly deploying a point of care serological test to all in the U.S. military.

April 2, 2020

Modernizing biotechnology for the fight against COVID-19 and the future of pandemic response

Alexander Titus, Michelle Rozo, and Diane DiEuliis provide some perspective on the importance of using advanced biotechnology capabilities during the global pandemic.

Jan. 22, 2020

Redefining Neuroweapons: Emerging Capabilities in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology

As global conflicts assume increasingly asymmetric and “gray zone” forms, the ability to employ current and newly developing techniques and tools of neurocognitive science to manipulate human thought and behavior must be viewed as a present and increasing challenge. DeFranco, DiEuliis, and Giordano examine how developments in neuroscience and technology (neuroS/T) make the brain sciences of growing value for operational use in warfare, intelligence, and national security…

Dec. 2, 2019

Synthetic Biology Industry Practices and Opportunities for Biosecurity and Potential Roles for the U.S. Government

This report summarizes discussions with industry representatives about the current and future structure of the synthetic biology industry, perspectives on potential misuse and vulnerabilities of synthetic biology tools and capabilities, and business practices to prevent misuse of tools and to protect industry assets.

Aug. 22, 2019

Biospecimens and the Information Landscape for Biodefense

As genomic sequencing and synthesis tools continue to grow, the genomic information associated with biospecimens is expanding rapidly; the convergence of the physical and digital worlds has yet unexamined impacts to our traditional biodefense frameworks.

Dec. 3, 2018

Biotechnology for the Battlefield: In Need of a Strategy

In her article, published on War on the Rocks, CSWMD Senior Research Fellow Dr. Diane DiEuliis discusses the need for a more cohesive strategy to harness the potential uses of biotechnology on the battlefield.

April 4, 2018

Biodata Risks and Synthetic Biology: A Critical Juncture

Intrinsic to growing ability to apply classical engineering to biological systems is the mounting ‘digitization of biology’, as the genetic code and its related metadata (including translated proteins, associated functions, herein referred to as “biodata”) are amassed in order to engineer biology for specific purposes. There are three unique risks categories associated with the digitization of biology: 1) pathogen risks; 2) manufacturing risks, and 3) risks to individual privacy that can allow human harms.

Nov. 3, 2017

Biosecurity Implications for the Synthesis of Horsepox, an Orthopoxvirus

This article examines the biosecurity and biodefense implications resulting from the recent creation of horsepox virus, a noncirculating (extinct) species of orthopoxvirus. Here we examine the technical aspects of the horsepox virus synthesis and conclude that orthopox synthesis experiments currently remain technically challenging—and will continue to be so, even once this work is published in the scientific literature.

Oct. 3, 2017

Options for Synthetic DNA Order Screening, Revisited

DNA synthesis is a valuable research tool in the design of new biological products for medicine and manufacturing, and the ability to chemically synthesize long tracts of DNA has allowed for the development of influenza vaccines and diagnostic tests.

May 12, 2017

Peril and Promise: Emerging Technologies and WMD

Emerging technologies are transforming life, industry, and the global economy in positive ways, but they also have significant potential for subversion by states and nonstate actors. National security experts, lawmakers, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about the interactions among a number of emerging technologies that could alter and increase the threats from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

April 14, 2017

The Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Program: An Enabler of the Third Offset Strategy

In the current era of rapidly emerging technologies, adversaries are not only rediscovering chemical and biological weapons; they are also displaying an increased propensity to employ them to cause strategic instability among deployed forces or nations undergoing conflict. The United States's investments in its Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP) can be a critical enabler of the third offset strategy, which is a DOD initiative that seeks to maximize force capability to offset emerging threats.