Innovation, Dual Use, and Security

Recent advances in disciplines such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, andneuropharmacology entail a "dual-use dilemma" because they promise benefits for humanhealth and welfare yet pose the risk of misuse for hostile purposes. The emerging field of syntheticgenomics, for example, can produce custom DNA molecules for life-saving drugs but also makespossible the creation of deadly viral agents for biological warfare or terrorism. The challenge forpolicymakers is to prevent the misuse of these new technologies without forgoing their benefits. Innovation, Dual Use, and Security offers a systematic approach for managingthe dual-use dilemma. The book presents a "decision framework" for assessing the securityrisks of emerging technologies and fashioning governance strategies to manage those risks. Thisframework is applied to fourteen contemporary case studies, including synthetic genomics, DNAshuffling and directed evolution, combinatorial chemistry, protein engineering, immunologicalmodulation, and aerosol vaccines. The book also draws useful lessons from two historical cases: thedevelopment of the V-series nerve agents in Britain and the use and misuse of LSD by the U.S. Armyand the CIA.

Innovation, Dual Use, and Security offers acomprehensive, multifaceted introduction to the challenges of governing dual-use technologies in anera of rapid innovation. The book will be of interest to government officials and otherpractitioners as well as to students and scholars in security studies, science and technologystudies, biology, and chemistry.

The late Jonathan B. Tucker was a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. He was the editor of Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (MIT Press, 2000) and the author of Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox and War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda.