International Biosecurity: Leveraging the Bio-Risk Spectrum

Abstract

Our perception of biological risk in America has changed significantly in the first decade of the 21st century. The 'anthrax letters' in the shadow of the World Trade Center attacks drove new funding for biodefense, a subsequent proliferation of containment laboratories and countermeasures research in the US. While biodefense spending continues today, we have refocused much of our operational thought on H5N1 flu and also on the potential harm that could come from the abuse of biotechnology. As we have watched, the world has become smaller, microbes are circulating more efficiently and biotechnological barriers continue to fall. Our Cooperative Threat Reduction program in the Former Soviet Union, which targeted 'bioweaponeers' there, is nearing the end of productive life; the biological cold-warriors need our dollars much less than they did in the 90s. There and in other parts of the developed world, business biotech is flourishing. In the developing world, there is far more concern about communicable and chronic disease than about terrorism or dual-use abuse of biology. In this age of asymmetric warfare, useful intelligence regarding the ever smaller footprint of facility and bioweapon is even more elusive. While the potential for harm with biology is enormous and the risk of an incident or outbreak is probably small.the real threat is extremely difficult to know. We can not rely on preemptive hard power alone to protect us from these elusive threats to our health and security. Dr. Franz will propose a model for reducing the impact of naturally occurring threats, reducing the likelihood of intentional threats and increasing the transparency of biological activity internationally in order to enhance the likelihood of knowing when 'capability' and all-important 'intent to harm' come together.

Bio

Dr. Franz served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for 23 of 27 years on active duty and retired as Colonel. He served as Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and as Deputy Commander of the Medical Research and Materiel Command. Prior to joining the Command, he served as Group Veterinarian for the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

Dr. Franz was the Chief Inspector on three United Nations Special Commission biological warfare inspection missions to Iraq and served as technical advisor on long-term monitoring. He also served as a member of the first two US-UK teams that visited Russia in support of the Trilateral Joint Statement on Biological Weapons and as a member of the Trilateral Experts' Committee for biological weapons negotiations.

Dr. Franz was Technical Editor for the Textbook of Military Medicine on Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare released in 1997. Current committee appointments include the Defense Intelligence Agency Red Team Bio-Chem 2020, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Threat Reduction Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) Committee for Research with Russian Biological Institutes (chair), the NAS Committee on International Security and Arms Control, the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Advisory Committee, the Department of Health and Human Services' National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.

Dr. Franz holds an adjunct appointment as Professor for the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University, and serves on the Dean's Advisory Council. He also holds an adjunct appointment as Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Franz serves as a Senior Fellow in the Combating Terrorism Center of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Dr. Franz holds a D.V.M. from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Baylor College of Medicine.