The threat of biological weapons has been worrying about the armed forces, as well as political leaders for quite some time. With the global recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpassing one million, the biotechnological revolution has heightened the fear of future weaponized pathogens. The COVID-19 virus or its variant could be the most effective weapon for future biological warfare. The indiscriminate effect of such a weapon and its power to cripple economies and devastate the lives of people may make it attractive to rogue States and non-State actors. This book provides an updated analysis of biological warfare agents, including the COVID-19 virus, biotechnological developments affecting biological agents, and the legal regime responsible for preventing the use of biological weapons.

India is prone to many natural and manmade disasters. Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) emergencies occur as a result of occupational exposure, fire, industrial explosions, release of toxicants and wastes. CBRN Terrorism is showing its head in many parts of the world and India is at risk too. High visibility events like large public rallies, major sporting events, religious festivals and cultural extravaganzas are all highly vulnerable to CBRN terror strikes. There is an urgent need to educate and train all concerned stakeholders in CBRN risks and threats and to adopt risk mitigation measures. The book brings forth the author's views on CBRN Incident Management in India, especially regarding CBRN governance, response mechanism, special event and critical infrastructure security, CBRN security culture and use of new technologies for effective CBRN risk mitigation. The book intends to acknowledge and extol our strides in this direction and urge all responsible stakeholders to take note and act on the gaps post haste.

From the early 1990s, allegations that servicemen had been duped into taking part in trials with toxic agents at top-secret Allied research facilities throughout the twentieth century featured with ever greater frequency in the media. In Britain, a whole army of over 21,000 soldiers had participated in secret experiments between 1939 and 1989. Some remembered their stay as harmless, but there were many for whom the experience had been all but pleasant, sometimes harmful, and in isolated cases deadly. Secret Science traces, for the first time, the history of chemical and biological weapons research by the former Allied powers, particularly in Britain, the United States, and Canada. It charts the ethical trajectory and culture of military science, from its initial development in response to Germany's first use of chemical weapons in the First World War to the ongoing attempts by the international community to ban these types of weapons once and for all. It asks whether Allied and especially British warfare trials were ethical, safe, and justified within the prevailing conditions and values of the time. By doing so, it helps to explain the complex dynamics in top-secret Allied research establishments: the desire and ability of the chemical and biological warfare corps, largely comprised of military officials, scientists, and expert civil servants, to construct and identify a never-ending stream of national security threats which served as flexible justification strategies for the allocation of enormous resources to conducting experimental research with some of the most deadly agents known to man. Secret Science offers a nuanced, non-judgemental analysis of the contributions made by servicemen, scientists, and civil servants to military research in Britain and elsewhere, not as passive, helpless victims 'without voices', or as laboratory and desk perpetrators 'without a conscience', but as history's actors and agents of their own destiny. As such it also makes an important contribution to the burgeoning literature on the history and culture of memory.

The author examines the productivity of the Department of Defense's biodefense research program over the course of more than 35 years, coupled with changes in the global research environment since the events of September 11, 2001. Where the deployment of a biologic agent of mass destruction is largely an unpredictable risk, the outcome certainly could be catastrophic for an unprotected population. An urgent moral imperative is cast upon the federal government, then, to objectively assess the application and management of its biodefense research resources.

Pathogens for War explores how Canada and its allies have attempted to deal with the threat of germ warfare, one of the most fearful weapons of mass destruction, since the Second World War. In addressing this subject, distinguished historian Donald Avery investigates the relationship between bioweapons, poison gas, and nuclear devices, as well as the connection between bioattacks and natural disease pandemics. Avery emphasizes the crucially important activities of Canadian biodefence scientists -- beginning with Nobel Laureate Frederick Banting -- at both the national level and through cooperative projects within the framework of an elaborate alliance system.Delving into history through a rich collection of declassified documents, Pathogens for War also devotes several chapters to the contemporary challenges of bioterrorism and disease pandemics from both national and international perspectives. As such, readers will not only learn about Canada's secret involvement with biological warfare, but will also gain new insights into current debates about the peril of bioweapons -- one of today's greatest threats to world peace.

An investigation into the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks leads to the realization that a new and terrible arms race may soon be upon us, one that spans the globe and is driven by an array of forces working with deadly microorganisms. Penetrating what they regard as an international  bioweapons mafia," Bob Coen and Eric Nadler encounter scientists, capitalists, politicians, and assassins  all playing with the world's most dangerous germs.Coen and Nadler pursue leads across four continents in an attempt to illuminate the secret world of international biological weapons research. They probe the mysterious deaths of some of the world's leading germ war scientists, including the death of Bruce Ivins  the man the FBI controversially insists is the lone perpetrator of the anthrax attacks. They also examine the suspicious suicide of British scientist and weapons inspector David Kelly, who was found dead in the woods the same week U.K. officials killed an investigation into illegal human experimentation at the top-secret facility where he once worked.As the plot darkens, it becomes clear that the 2001 anthrax attacks are a portal into a new and lucrative  biomilitary-industrial complex," and one of the most frightening stories of our time.