Key U.S. Initiatives for Addressing Biological Threats Part 4: The Department of State

The COVID-19 pandemic is a microcosm of both the risks and opportunities that the life sciences represent for the modern, globalized world. On the one hand, COVID-19 continues to devastate the world. On the other hand, the pandemic has galvanized the international community to leverage cuttingedge life sciences tools and knowledge into the highly-effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics the world has today.

In terms of biological threats, the COVID-19 pandemic struck at a time when geopolitical, sociocultural, economic, and environmental factors were already drastically changing the security landscape. Nations such as Russia, China, and North Korea are suspected of possessing biological weapons capabilities and have shown a willingness and ability to engage in gray-zone warfare (i.e., competitive activities between states that are characterized by “intense political, economic, informational, and military competition” that is short of conventional war). The perceived erosion of the norm against the use of chemical weapons has also raised concerns at the highest levels of the United Nations on how this may be a harbinger for the decay of norms against the use of other lethal agents, including biological weapons.

As a result of these trends, the United States will have to expand its efforts to maximize benefits and minimize risks from advances in synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and additive bio-manufacturing. Hopefully, one of the results of the pandemic will be a surge toward greater international cooperation in this regard. The U.S. Department of State (State) will be pivotal in realizing this vision.