Dual Use and Dual Use Research of Concern : From the BTWC negotiations to genes drives

In 1999 Walter Isaacson wrote in Time magazine “Ring farewell to the century of physics, the one in which we split the atom and turned silicon into computing power. It’s time to ring the century of biotechnology”1. Biotechnology actually ushered in a true revolutionary change, which unlocked nature’s full potential to better out lives. Real steps forward have been made in several domains improving dramatically our health, wealth and environment. Unfortunately the same technologies bringing out such benefits could be misused allowing biological weapons to overcome some of the physical restrictions that in the past limited their production, delivery and deployment. International efforts to prevent the weaponization of life science are spearheaded by the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention. This was an unprecedented attempt to create the world’s first international legal regime banning the development, and stockpiling of an entire class of weapons of mass destruction. In theory, the threat of biological warfare should no longer be with us, but this it is not the case. Though in the 1970s the Convention seemed to have borne fruit, things changed rapidly. Profound transformations both in the international context and in bioscience technology not only repeatedly strained the convention but also threatened to shake the foundations of its regulatory power.