50 min listen
Biological Weapons: Still a Huge Global Threat!
Biological Weapons: Still a Huge Global Threat!
ratings:
Length:
35 minutes
Released:
Oct 26, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
It's the late summer, and an unexplained influenza virus is killing international travelers. Researchers quickly identify the virus as a genetically engineered flu-strain. Intelligence agencies find irrefutable evidence that the virus was created in a secret bioweapons laboratory in a middle income country. It was accidentally released. By the end 50 million people are killed by this pathogen. This was the scenario presented to a group of experts at the Munich Security Conference in February who participated in what is known as a "tabletop exercise" to understand how key international players might respond to a situation like this--and identify ways that such a scenario might be prevented from unfolding in the first place. My guest today, Jaime Yassif, helped to design and implement this table top exercise. She is a senior fellow at NTI for Global Biological policy and programs. And in our conversation we discuss what this fictional scenario reveals about very real gaps in international policies to prevent a catastrophic biological weapons event.
Released:
Oct 26, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Episode 8: Suzanne Nossel: Mark Leon Goldberg speaks with Suzanne Nossel author of the influential Foreign Affairs article "Smart Power." by Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters