Nunn School Assistant Professor Margaret E. Kosal has published a chapter, “Anticipating the Biological Proliferation Threat of Nanotechnology: Challenges for International Arms Control Regimes,” in the new book New Technologies and the Law of Armed Conflict, edited by Hitoshi Nasu & Robert McLaughlin.

In her chapter, Kosal explores some of the challenges to international arms control regimes and international law posed by the pursuit of nanotechnology as it intersects with the proliferation of biological weapons. The security implications, both for traditional non-proliferation regimes and for misuse by non-state actors, have not received commensurate attention with other technological advances. At the same time, policy makers and the scientific community, domestically and internationally, are attempting to develop new means to address risks associated with biotechnology, including synthetic genomics. Although the potential threats of nanotechnology research in an age of terrorism or a new age of state-based proliferation may not be as easy to envision in the near term as those associated with biotechnology, the possibilities are becoming more real as nanotechnology is transitioned from the laboratory to products.

Working at the intersection of science and security, Dr. Margaret Kosal is among the foremost experts on the weapons of mass destruction and the national security implications of emerging and dual-use technologies; such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and the cognitive neurosciences. She earned a doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and has served previously in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army as part of his Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Her book Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense (Springer Academic Publishers, 2009) explores scenarios and strategies regarding the benefits and potential proliferation threats of nanotechnology and other emerging sciences for national security.