This project examined the implications of globalization for the governance of dual-use technologies relevant to chemical and biological warfare and the role played by actors other than the state in governance of those technologies.
People Involved in the Project
Principal Investigator: Professor Julian P Robinson.
Co-Investigators: Daniel Feakes and Caitríona McLeish.
Project Duration and Funding:
This ESRC-funded project commenced in August 2005 and ran until November 2007.
Project Aims
The project was about the implications of globalization for the governance of dual-use technologies relevant to chemical and biological warfare (CBW). The project sought to discover how and why non-state actors become involved in the governance of CBW technologies and what, if any, barriers to entry or structures of co-operation were encountered by them. Recognizing that a state-centric “national security” model does not offer a useful explanatory framework for technology governance policies, our project responded to calls for new analyses of CBW issues in a security environment in which no state, no matter how powerful, can make itself invulnerable to today’s threats. Globalization has increased and dispersed worldwide the number of actors involved in governing dual-use CBW technologies and has opened up new governance spaces in which these actors can interact and through which they can influence policy processes.
Research Questions
Our project asked four research questions:
- How has the globalization of CBW technologies and their dual-use nature changed the CBW security problem?
- What effects has the globalization of dual-use CBW technologies had on state action?
- What is the role and interaction of non-state actors in dual-use CBW technology governance?
- What impacts are non-state actors having on the globalization of CBW constraints?
Publications
Daniel Feakes, Caitriona McLeish and Julian Perry Robinson, “Non-State Actors and the Globalization of CBW Technologies” | Paper Presented to the 23rd Workshop of the Pugwash CBW Study Group, Geneva, Switzerland, 3-4 December 2005.
Daniel Feakes and Caitriona McLeish, “Biosecurity, Stakeholders and Networks” | Paper Presented at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, Workshop on Genomics and Biosecurity, Edinburgh, 13-14 November 2006.
‘Biosecurity, Stakeholders and Networks’ | Paper Presented to the 25th Workshop of the Pugwash CBW Study Group, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-19 November 2006.[Available here].
Julian Perry Robinson, “Near-Term Development of the Governance Regime for Biological and Chemical Weapons” | Paper Presented at the Sixth ESRC Research Seminar on “New Approaches to WMD Proliferation”, University of Sussex, 8-9 January 2007.
Daniel Feakes, “The In-Depth Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Second Review Conference” | Paper Presented at the OPCW Academic Forum, The Hague, 18-19 September 2007, and later published in Ralf Trapp (ed), OPCW Academic Forum Conference Proceedings (OPCW, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research 2007).
Caitriona McLeish, “From Disarmament to Technology Governance: Functional Change in the Chemical Weapons Convention” | Paper Presented at the OPCW Academic Forum, The Hague, 18-19 September 2007, and later published in Ralf Trapp (ed), OPCW Academic Forum Conference Proceedings (OPCW, Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research 2007).
Daniel Feakes, Brian Rappert and Caitriona McLeish, “Introduction: A Web of Prevention?” In Brian Rappert and Caitriona McLeish (eds.), A Web of Prevention: Biological Weapons, Life Sciences and the Governance of Research, Earthscan: London, 2007. [See sample chapter here].
Caitriona McLeish, “Reflecting on the Problem of Dual Use”. In Brian Rappert and Caitriona McLeish (eds.), A Web of Prevention: Biological Weapons, Life Sciences and the Governance of Research, Earthscan: London, 2007. [Chapter available here].
Caitriona McLeish and Daniel Feakes, “Biosecurity and Stakeholders: The Rise of Networks and Non-State Actors”, Science and Public Policy, vol. 35 no. 1, pp 5-12, February 2008. [Article can be accessed here].
Julian Perry Robinson, “Difficulties Facing the Chemical Weapons Convention”, International Affairs, vol. 84 no. 2, March 2008. [Article can be accessed here].
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