Biosecurity in the Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health, and the Rule of Law

by David P. Fidler, Lawrence Gostin

Biosecurity comprehensively analyzes the dramatic transformations that are reshaping how the international community addresses biological weapons and infectious diseases. The book examines the renewed threat from biological weapons, and explores the new world of biological weapons governance. Gostin and Fidler argue that the arms control approach in the Biological Weapons Convention no longer dominates. Other strategies have emerged to challenge the arms control approach, and the book identifies four important policy trends―the criminalization of biological weapons, regulation of the biological sciences, management of the biodefense imperative, and preparation for biological weapons attack. The book also explores the challenges to public health resulting from new security threats. The authors look at the linkages between security and public health policy, both at the national and international level. For instance, Gostin and Fidler scrutinize the difficulty of developing policies that improve defenses against both biological weapons and the threat of infectious diseases from new viral strains. The new worlds of biological weapons and public health governance raise the importance of crafting policy responses informed by the rule of law. Thinking about the rule of law underscores the importance of finding globalized forms of biosecurity governance. The book explores patterns in recent governance initiatives and advocates building a "global biosecurity concert" as a way to address the threats biological weapons and infectious diseases present in the early 21st century.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 3, 2007

About the author

David P. Fidler (B.C.L., University of Oxford, 1991; J.D., Harvard Law School, 1991; M.Phil, Oxford, 1988; B.A., University of Kansas, 1986) is James Louis Calamaras Emeritus Professor of Law in the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University Bloomington, and adjunct senior fellow for cybersecurity and global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Reviews

[Tim Mcleod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the governance problems of global biosecurity/health security. I would have liked a few more vignettes on how governments (and multilateral organizations, NGOs, etc.) have succeeded and failed, but overall a great introduction for the uninitiated. Would be nice to see a revised version as well since we are more than a decade out from the original publishing date.