The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) has accepted a diverse group of 5 professionals, servicepeople, and innovators into the 2021-22 class of its Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs. Together, through mentorship and exchanges of ideas with key leaders in the…
Read More CSR Announces 2nd Class of its Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs
By Bill Beaver, Christine Parthemore & Erin Sikorsky On April 9, the Biden administration announced its topline budget priorities for the U.S. government, including for the Department of Defense (DoD). DoD funding will increase by 1.6%, which ends up being…
Read More U.S. Department of Defense in Focus: Budget Priorities and Questions for New Nominees
By Bill Beaver, Yong-Bee Lim, Christine Parthemore and Andy Weber On February 4, 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III released a statement on the initiation of a Global Posture Review (GPR) - a comprehensive review of the U.S.…
Read More Protecting Against Biological Threats: Recommendations for the Global Posture Review
By Yong-Bee Lim The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report titled Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology in 2018. Beyond focusing on pathogens and biochemicals, this report discussed how nefarious actors may use technical…
Read More Accelerated Advances in Biotech and the Bioweapons Threat
By Chris Bakerlee, Steph Guerra, Christine Parthemore, Damien Soghoian, and Jacob Swett The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a loud wake-up call to the systemic and strategic effects of biological threats. If not rapidly detected and addressed, infectious diseases can in…
Read More BRIEFER: Common Misconceptions About Biological Weapons
Parthemore and Weber, LA Times, Nov 12, 2020 By Christine Parthemore and Andy Weber The COVID-19 pandemic continues to prove that infectious diseases can devastate the United States and the world---killing and sickening millions, disrupting lives, crippling economies, and significantly…
Read More Pandemics and Bioweapons: A Path for the Biden Administration
By Christine Parthemore The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) would like to congratulate Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for receiving the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, announced on October 7th. This prestigious prize was awarded for their work developing…
Read More The Nobel Prize, CRISPR-Cas9 and Biological Threats
Data will be one of the central components of preventing future outbreaks from growing to pandemic proportions. This holds for natural disease outbreaks and for deliberate biological attacks. Our tools and methods for collecting, analyzing, and using data are incredible…
Read More Early Warning in Preventing Future Pandemics: Incredible Opportunity & Major Hurdles
The Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) has selected its inaugural class of the Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs. In this one-year program, five Fellows will work with leading experts from CSR’s team and network to generate ideas for ending the…
Read More CSR Announces Inaugural Class of its Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs
As the world continues to battle the novel coronavirus that leads to COVID-19, it is a stark reminder of the devastation biological threats can cause. And while this ongoing pandemic arose naturally, it once again proves the grave threat biological…
Read More Call for Applications: Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs
