Carleton University’s Jez Littlewood, assistant professor in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), has contributed to a new book entitled Preventing Biological Threats: What You Can Do: A Guide to Biological Security Issues and How to Address Them.
The book, led by Littlewood’s former colleagues at the Department of Peace Studies, is a collaborative and interdisciplinary overview of threats posed by the malicious use of biological agents.
Biological warfare – the deliberate use of disease as a weapon – represents a threat that is often featured in the nightmare scenarios of policy-makers and politicians. While actual use of biological weapons has been on a small scale to date, the potential misuse of science can’t be ignored. The book aims to help scientists understand how their work may be misused and gives them advice on how to prevent it.
Littlewood’s chapter on the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention – the international treaty that prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons and requires disarmament – builds on his academic work and his experience at the United Nations and with the government of the United Kingdom. The convention is not a perfect treaty and the actions of its member states are not above criticism, but after 40 years the treaty remains a significant bulwark against the use of disease as a weapon that cannot be easily circumvented or ignored without consequence.
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