Given the current global shift toward symmetrical warfare, major powers – and non-state proxies – are developing radical leveling and emerging technology for use as “deterrence leveraging” in both non-kinetic and kinetic engagements. Although regnant treaties and conventions are postured to govern chemical and biological weapons, novel advances in genetics, synthetic biology, and neuroscience, particularly when coupled to big data and cyberscientific tools and methods, can enable side-stepping such international regulatory constraints, and afford rapid scientific and technological progress in ways that pose clear and present threat to global biosecurity and defense.
In this lecture, HDIAC SME Dr James Giordano presents an overview of current and emerging developments in chem-bio and data and cybersciences and technologies (CB-DCST), describes trajectories for their deterrent applications in non-kinetic and/or kinetic engagements, addresses ethico-legal issues relevant to their research, use and governance, and proposes a paradigm for realistic approach to informing surveillance, forecasting, and regulatory control.