{"id":23150,"date":"2016-05-23T15:33:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T19:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=23150"},"modified":"2021-02-03T17:45:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T22:45:47","slug":"woodward-gives-talk-on-biological-weapons-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2016\/05\/23\/woodward-gives-talk-on-biological-weapons-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodward Gives Talk on Biological Weapons Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Woodward<\/a>
Association of Former Intelligence Officers President James R. Hughes, a BU alumnus, thanks Professor John Woodward for his presentation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John D. Woodward, Jr.<\/a>, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, was a featured speaker at the May luncheon meeting of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) held in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia on May 20, 2016.<\/p>\n

Introduced by AFIO President James R. Hughes, a veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service (BU M.A. IR 1970), John briefed the 200 attendees on the topic, “The Hard Problem of Countering the Use of Biological Weapons.”<\/p>\n

A former CIA officer who served in the Clandestine Service and the Directorate of Science and Technology, Woodward\u00a0urged greater policymaker attention\u00a0<\/strong>to the\u00a0biological weapons threat,\u00a0explaining the ways in which biological weapons pose a human, economic, and societal threat.<\/p>\n

Woodward\u00a0then\u00a0detailed biological weapons risks as terrorists and others leverage advances in the life sciences and information technologies to ramp up the types of attacks they may seek to launch.<\/p>\n

“We know that non-state actors like Al Qaeda and the Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, tried very hard to develop offensive biological weapons capabilities in the 1990s. \u00a0They manifested clear intent to possess biological weapons; they lacked the capability,” \u00a0Woodward said.\u00a0“As the technology advances and processes become deskilled, it becomes easier and easier for more and more malevolent actors to produce biological weapons.”<\/p>\n

Woodward’s presentation also included possible policy approaches to focus greater attention on intelligence measures the US and global communities can take to prevent or disrupt biological weapons attacks.<\/p>\n

In light of the upcoming presidential election, Woodward\u00a0concluded by noting that “Based on their prior statements and writings, both presumptive candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are aware of the grave threat posed by biological weapons. \u00a0For example, as President Obama’s Secretary of State, Clinton spoke about the transnational threat posed by biological weapons and how transnational action is required to counter it. \u00a0Mr. Trump, in his book, The America We Deserve <\/em>(2000), made several references to biological weapon risks and offered counter-biological weapon policy ideas.”<\/p>\n

Incorporated in 1975, AFIO is a national non-profit educational association for current and former intelligence professionals as well as individuals and organizations with an interest in the U.S. intelligence community.<\/p>\n

Woodward\u00a0<\/span>is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer.\u00a0During his twenty-year CIA career, he served as an operations officer in\u00a0the Clandestine Service and as a technical intelligence officer in the Directorate of Science and Technology, with assignments in Washington, DC,\u00a0East Asia, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.\u00a0Learn more about him here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. John Woodward urged greater policymaker attention to the biological weapons threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8414],"tags":[9287,9409,9427,1583,9408,9224],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23571,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23150\/revisions\/23571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}