Nov. 3, 2015

In Good Health? The Biological Weapons Convention and the “Medicalization” of Security

Since the 1990s, the group of stakeholders working to combat biological weapons (BW) proliferation has broadened to include new actors who have not traditionally focused on security issues, including organizations from the public health sector, researchers in the life sciences, and the biosafety community. This has had significant benefits for the

July 1, 2015

The History of Biological Weapons Use: What We Know and What We Don’t

This article critically reviews the literature on the history of biological warfare, bioterrorism, and biocrimes. The first serious effort to review this entire history, made in 1969, had numerous limitations. In recent decades, several authors have filled many of the gaps in our understanding of the past use of biological agents (including both

Oct. 1, 2009

President Nixon’s Decision to Renounce the U.S. Offensive Biological Weapons Program

The nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was a prominent feature of the Cold War. A lesser known but equally dangerous element of the superpower competition involved biological weapons (BW), living microorganisms that cause fatal or incapacitating diseases in humans, animals, or plants. By the late 1960s, the United

June 1, 2009

Are We Prepared? Four WMD Crises That Could Transform U.S. Security

This report, written by the staff of the National Defense University Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the fall of 2008 and the early winter of 2009, was conceived initially as a transition paper for the new administration following the 2008 American Presidential election. This report presents four weapons of mass destruction

April 1, 2003

Toward a National Biodefense Strategy

The United States is re-learning an important lesson in the first decade of the 21st century: adversaries may attack the United States, its interests, or those of friends and allies with biological weapons (BW). The last century witnessed the purported use of glanders by the Germans in World War I and the use of dysentery, plague, and typhus by the

Nov. 1, 2002

Anthrax in America: A Chronology and Analysis of the Fall 2001 Anthrax Attacks

This paper describes the 2001 anthrax attacks on the United States and provides a one-year snapshot of the attacks and subsequent response.

Dec. 1, 2001

Adversary Use of NBC Weapons: A Neglected Challenge

This article describes how thinking regarding how an adversary might use nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical weapons against the United States changed in the last decade of the 20th century.

Feb. 1, 2001

Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: the Illicit Use of Biological Arms in the 20th century

This working paper is an updated study of research that began in 1998; it provides a descriptive analysis of the illicit use of biological agents by criminals and terrorists in the 20th century and draws on a series of specific case studies.

Dec. 1, 1999

DOD and Consequence Management: Mitigating the Effects of Chemical and Biological Attack

This article aims to analyze the potential threat of chemical and biological weapons to the U.S. It also offers recommendations on how to approach these situations and respond appropriately.