Bioterrorism: The Future of Warfare
Human history can be demonstrated as a series of advances in warfares , which spans over the use of chariots to crossbow to nuclear arsenals and we are living in what may be the fastest advancing weaponry industry producing automated , self destructed and bio-weapons leading to horrible and uncontrolled destruction resulting in widespread collateral damages. Generally, Bioterrorism refers to using living organisms such as viruses, bacteria and fungus or extracting toxins from them as bioweapons to cause mass panic, economic disruption and harm National Security. In the same manner, Innovation in synthetic biology and quantum computing are transforming the mechanisms of how we wage the wars in modern landscape of combating. Besides evolution in emerging technological weapons: robotic aircraft which operate in unison to identify and destroy targets without human monitoring, Al-designed bioweapons engineered with programmed instructions aimed at proliferating disease that kills only those with specific genetic traits. Moreover, for the first time in 𝗍𝗁𝖾 south 𝗈𝖿 San Francisco 𝗈𝗇 November 15, 2023 something strange happened amid the meeting between president Joe Biden and president Xi Jinping of china , after finishing lunch as both the leaders left, an aide to Mr. Xi signalled to one the bodyguard of Chinese president Xi Jinping, who moved ahead to approach table and took out a small bottle out of his pocket and sprayed down every surface that the Xi Jinping touched on the table including food items. The American official concluded that the aim of spraying was to remove any trace of Mr.Xi’s DNA that his host my collect and exploit. It was feared that they could engineer a disease as a bioweapon that would be manipulated to target particular person.
Historically, there are numerous ancients of wars that highlights the manipulation of bio agents as a means to combat against the enemies: the Assyrians in Iraq second millennium before used toxic moulds from parasitic fungus as a bioweapon for the first time and poured it into water that their enemies would later drink. Many soldiers were killed in this ancient, causalities of 20000 out of 27000 British soldiers in devastating war waged by UK against Mexico and peru in 1741 and likewise countries grappling with attacks made use of bioweapons by proliferating Yellow fever throughout Europe amid 1733-1865 that engulfed the lives of 8 million folks. Moreover, in contemporary history the German armies during WW1 injected horses and cows before transporting it to United States and France, and exploited them as bioweapons. Besides the examples don’t pause there, in 1937 Japanese army initiated a huge project under the name of “Unit731”expended over some 100 km in the south of china aimed at producing bio agents.
Furthermore, the danger to escalate confrontation transcends traditional battlefield, major rivals across the glob are competing to synthesise biological agent programmed with particular genes aimed at perpetuating covert war against an individual or entire nation causing a far reaching consequences to health, economy and national security. According to the centre for disease control and prevention ( CDC) from 1981 to 2018 there were 37 bioterrorist attacks worldwide, CDC identified Anthrax, botulism, smallpox and viral hemorrahagic fever among the deliberately designed bio agents to cause mass panic and severe economic disruption. Similarly, COVID-19 a recent pandemic is suspected an act of bioterrorism that originated from laboratory experiments in Wuhan city of china which affected millions across the world. Equally important from the war of Ukraine to US-china rivalry the likelihood of using bioweapons is bourgeoning, demonstrate by overwhelming investment in technological industries and scientific researches. Lawrence O. Gostin famously said “ the next weapon of mass destruction will not be a bomb. It will be a tiny pathogen that one can’t smell, see or taste, and by the time we discover it, it will be too late”.
Conversely , the use of bio agents is not now confined to nations states, instead individuals with malicious intentions who have coding knowledge, laptops and internet access could administer Al software utilising unencrypted database sources and find ways to innovate versus and spread them to cause widespread devastation . In particular, it is directed at individuals with specific characteristics as their prime targets.
Additionally, major companies have warned, if nothing is done the damage will be irreversible. Algorithms will soon be able to guide the rouge actors to develop bioweapons and make it more destructive. Recently, two students at MIT come up with four pathogens with the help of chatbots which also explain the mechanism to generate it from synthetic DNA. This is done in hours. Rapid spreading , clandestine conduct and time efficiency enhanced its importance in foreseeable future to replace the traditional military arsenals establishing new combatting tendencies in the changing dynamics of war.
On the whole, the expedient flourishing of technology goes side by side with heightened awareness and preparedness. At national and international levels robust regulation of biological materials and illicit manufacturing of bio agents
would mitigate the threats to national security and international peace. Like traditional treaties that aims at probities of wars and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction : Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons ( NPT), nuclear weapons free-zone ( NWFZ) and the UN charter extra, prohibition of the production of bioweapons also demand decisive international legal frameworks and regulations at domestic levels to ensure the prevention of bioterrorism by closely monitoring and tracking illegitimate laboratory experiments developing bioweapons to avoid an other pandemic . These measures would be possible through diplomatic channels, cooperation and mutual support among members states of United Nations.
