A web of prevention : biological weapons, life sciences and the governance of research

 Content: List of contributors --
 Foreword / Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack --
 Acknowledgements --
 List of acronyms and abbreviations --
 Introduction : A web of prevention? / Daniel Feakes, Brian Rappert and Caitríona McLeish --
 Origins --
 Outline of the book --
 1. Life sciences or death sciences : tipping the balance towards life with ethics, codes and laws / Ronald M. Atlas and Margaret Somerville --
 Legal prohibitions --
 Legitimate research that could be misused : dual use research --
 Towards professional codes of conduct --
 Responses to proposed codes of ethics to govern the life sciences --
 Conclusions --
 2. Whistleblowers : risks and skills / Brian Martin --
 Official channels --
 Ethics codes --
 Skills --
 Conclusions --
 3. Education for the life sciences : choices and challenges / Brian Rappert --
 The pervasive call for education --
 The predicaments of education --
 Educational initiatives --
 The life sciences, biosecurity and dual use research seminars --
 Conclusions --
 4. Dual use : can we learn from the physicists' experience? : a personal view / John L. Finney --
 Immediately after the bomb --
 The hydrogen bomb --
 Where have the concerned physicists gone? --
 Physics and biology : nuclear and biological weapons --
 Cross-fertilization of dual use consciousness --
 5. Science and technology developments relevant to the Biological Weapons Convention / Royal Society --
 The BWC and dual use dilemmas --
 Synthetic biology --
 Post-genomic technologies --
 Immunological research --
 Drug delivery --
 Agriculture and environmental biotechnology --
 A note on diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases --
 Key issues --
 Conclusions. 6. Options for a scientific advisory panel for the Biological Weapons Convention / Catherine Rhodes and Malcolm Dando --
 The Biological Weapons Convention regime and science --
 Models of scientific input --
 A typology of options for scientific advice --
 Appropriate options for a BWC Scientific Advisory Board --
 7. Dual use biotechnology research : the case for protective oversight / Elisa D. Harris --
 Confronting the dual use problem? --
 An alternative approach --
 Next steps --
 8. Reflections on the role of research oversight in a web of prevention / Thomas V. Holohan --
 9. Export control and the non-proliferation of materials : national boundaries in international science? / Jez Littlewood --
 Export controls : a primer --
 UK approaches to biological weapons-related export controls --
 Regional, like-minded and other mechanisms --
 national boundaries on international science? --
 Conclusions. 10. Chemical and biological weapons export controls and the 'web of prevention' : a practitioner's perspective / Robert J. Mathews --
 Introduction --
 A brief history of the Australia Group --
 Reflections on the evolution of the Australia Group --
 Export licensing, web of deterrence and web of prevention --
 11. How does secrecy work? : keeping and disclosing secrets in the history of the UK biological warfare programme / Brian Balmer --
 Keeping secrets : security classification and the value of information --
 Letting secrets out : orderly and disorderly release of knowledge --
 Conclusions --
 12. Reflecting on the problem of dual use / Catríona McLeish --
 The role of 'dual use' in biological weapons threat framings --
 Deconstructing the concept of 'dual use' --
 Understanding dual use in terms of policy solutions --
 What can be learned about the concept of dual use? --
 Conclusions --
 13. Governing dual use life science research : opportunities and risks for public health / Emmanuelle Tuerlings --
 Index.