Book project on future verification of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), to be published by World Scientific Publishing (London), October 2021 (Multi-authored volume).
In view of the 9th conference (scheduled for the end of 2021) the question of how the BTWC could be ameliorated and strengthened will arise again. Given the current work programmes, little opportunity exists to reflect on a holistic approach to the convention.
Any such thinking starts and ends with the failure of the Ad Hoc Group in 2001, whose mandate included the negotiation of a legally binding protocol to the convention. Since then, the life sciences, biotechnology and the biotechnology industry have moved on and their pace of innovation and expansion into other areas of research and application is still accelerating.
The question for tomorrow is, whether a more holistic approach to prevention of the emergence or re-emergence of biological weapons is possible with our present insights in scientific developments, industrial organisation and new security challenges posed by infectious disease and new and emerging technologies. In other words, is it possible to design a new agenda for biological weapon disarmament?
- Development and implementation of a multi- and interdisciplinary master course on CBRN transfer controls.
- Project part 1: International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC), in collaboration with KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan. Duration: 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2019.
- Project part 2: Science and Technology Centre In Ukraine (STCU), in collaboration with Taras Schevchenko National University, Kyiv, Ukraine. Duration: 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2019.