Center’s Alan Pearson to Blog from International Meeting on Biological Weapons

Dr. Alan Pearson, Director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Center, is attending and blogging from the 2008 Meeting of Experts of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in Geneva all this week.

Click here to read his daily updates on the Center’s website.

The meeting will focus on the oversight and regulation of biodefense and other research in the life sciences, as well as measures to improve biosafety and biosecurity. These politically contentious issues have gained renewed attention in the United States following the FBI’s conclusion that the 2001 anthrax attacks were an inside job by Army biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins.

Background information on the BWC is available here, while information on key issues addressed at previous meetings is here.

And, of course, to learn more about the Center’s Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program, click here.

Memorandum to Obama and McCain: A New Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Agenda

The past eight years of the Bush administration have been disastrous for arms control and nonproliferation initiatives. The next president, however, can make significant progress in repairing the damage and moving these important issues forward.

As such, I recently prepared a memo to the president-elect, which details four points for a larger arms control and nonproliferation agenda:

• Pursue a Follow-On Agreement to START I
• Build a Bipartisan Consensus Leading to CTBT Ratification
• Urge BWC Universalization, Advance Confidence-Building Measures, and Open Compliance Protocol Negotiations
• Negotiate a Treaty and Other Measures to Ban Space Weapons

Click here to read the full memo to John McCain and Barack Obama.