Nunn School Assistant Professor, Margaret E. Kosal, spoke at the Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense held 11-12 March in Alexandria VA on the threats, opportunities, and strategic gaps in 21st century defense against CBRN weapons.

Kosal spoke on the security implications of advancements in emerging technologies –such nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials science -- for national security and the underlying challenge of advanced technologies and efforts to limit proliferation in the 21st Century. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the international community and nation-states have struggled – and continue to do so – to deal with technologically-enabled proliferation challenges. Inadequacies in the international systems and in the international regimes, coupled with decisions and choices of individual states, have produced a tacit shift downward for limiting proliferation threats from biotechnology to specialized groups and increasingly to individuals.

The Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium is designed as an educational and training “Town Hall” forum, where thought leaders and key policy-makers acrossmilitary and civilian organizations come together for actionable discussions and debate. The Symposium brought together senior level officials from the Department of Defense, department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Program Management Offices, specifically the policy and acquisition organizations responsible for preparing and operating vehicle platforms and modernization of the fleet across a diverse set of missions.