From Biological Disarmament to Biosecurity: Securitization or Humanization of Biological Weapons Control after September 11, 2001?

Project management: Prof. Dr. Harald Müller

The rapid development of biotechnology is leading to an increasingly perceived threat from bioweapons. At the same time, a humanitarian perspective has emerged in the security discourse, which attaches great importance to public health, laboratory safety and the fight against infectious diseases. The biological weapons control regime lies at the intersection of these perspectives. The project examines the impact of the increasing fusion of security and humanitarian (health) aspects on biological disarmament and the role played by different notions of participatory and procedural justice.

The project examines the plurality of normative types of legitimation in humanitarian and security policy discourses on the basis of the conflicts that emerge in the regime for the control of biological weapons. It empirically explores how global normative security perceptions affect the regulatory practice of bioweapons, biotechnological research and global health policy.

Based on inductive observations, the topics of bioweapons control and biosecurity as well as the conflicts of justice inherent therein were first empirically investigated and later analyzed on a conceptual level. Visits to the international conferences of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), at which the researcher Una Becker-Jakob was an advisor to the German negotiating delegation, also contributed practical empirical findings. Knowledge transfer also takes place in the “Disarmament and Non-Proliferation of Biological and Chemical Weapons” working group and at its annual meetings, which Una Becker-Jakob organizes in cooperation with TU Darmstadt and the University of Hamburg. The circle of participants includes representatives from various ministries and government agencies, the Bundestag, the Bundeswehr and research institutions in the life sciences, law and social sciences.

The empirical observation that the security policy discourse surrounding bioweapons control is increasingly being framed in humanitarian terms was confirmed and clarified in the course of the project work. During the analysis, it became clear that health and security policy aspects are not only discussed in parallel, but also have an impact on negotiations and are played off against each other. This reflects priorities with different normatively underpinned legitimation patterns, which are fed by adjacent normative orders (e.g. on global health, development or biodiversity). As the empirical research in the project has shown, this has direct and negative effects on the performance and stability of the normative order of bioweapons control. These effects will be analyzed and evaluated in the final phase of the project (until autumn 2017).

The most important events in this project:

Presentation: “The BWC: Issues for the 2016 Review Conference” (by Una Becker-Jakob), EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Conference of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium, Brussels, Belgium, September 11-12, 2015.

Workshop: Bioweapons Control and Biosecurity, prepared and conducted for the GIZ Program Office in the German G8 Biosecurity Partnership Program, Berlin, September 26, 2013.

The most important publications in this project:

Becker-Jakob, Una: “Building Confidence Over Biological Matters in the Middle East”, in: H. Müller and D. Müller (eds.): WMD Arms Control in the Middle East: Prospects, Obstacles and Options, Farnham: Ashgate (Routledge), 2015, pp. 165-173.

Becker-Jakob, Una: “Balanced Minimalism: The Biological Weapons Convention After Its 7th Review Conference”, PRIF Report No. 120, Frankfurt am Main, 2013, [online].

*Müller, Harald/Una Becker-Jakob/Tabea Seidler-Diekmann: “Regime Conflicts and Norm Dynamics: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons”, in: H. Müller and C. Wunderlich, (eds.): Norm Dynamics in Multilateral Arms Control. Interests, Conflicts, and Justice , Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 2013, pp. 51-81.

A peer-reviewed article and another PRIF report are currently being planned.

people in this project:

Project management / contact person

Müller, Harald, Prof. Dr.

Project staff

Becker-Jakob, Una