Overview

In both the popular imagination and among lawmakers and national security experts, there exists the belief that with sufficient motivation and material resources, states or terrorist groups can produce bioweapons easily, cheaply, and successfully. In Barriers to Bioweapons, Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley challenges this perception by showing that bioweapons development is a difficult, protracted, and expensive endeavor, rarely achieving the expected results whatever the magnitude of investment. Her findings are based on extensive interviews she conducted with former U.S. and Soviet-era bioweapons scientists and on careful analysis of archival data and other historical documents related to various state and terrorist bioweapons programs. Bioweapons development relies on living organisms that are sensitive to their environment and handling conditions, and therefore behave unpredictably. These features place a greater premium on specialized knowledge. Ben Ouagrham-Gormley posits that lack of access to such intellectual capital constitutes the greatest barrier to the making of bioweapons. She integrates theories drawn from economics, the sociology of science, organization, and management with her empirical research. The resulting theoretical framework rests on the idea that the pace and success of a bioweapons development program can be measured by its ability to ensure the creation and transfer of scientific and technical knowledge. The specific organizational, managerial, social, political, and economic conditions necessary for success are difficult to achieve, particularly in covert programs where the need to prevent detection imposes managerial and organizational conditions that conflict with knowledge production.

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Barriers to Bioweapons is a valuable contribution to the literature on bioweapons and security. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley provides an exceptionally clear analysis of the many elements necessary for success in developing a capability to produce bioweapons and illustrates them with a number of historical case studies. The policy implications of her analysis stretch beyond bioweapons to other security issues where the transfer of knowledge is seen to pose a threat to U.S. security. This volume has much to offer scholars and policy makers alike. -Judith V. Reppy, Cornell University, coeditor of Getting to Zero

In Barriers to Bioweapons, Ben Ouagrham-Gormley similarly and persuasively argues that the challenges to producing biological weapons-whether by state or non-state actors-are considerable... The book is an attempt to demonstrate in a rigorous manner that there are significant barriers to producing bioweapons. Given the recent controversy over the publication of several papers on H5N1 influenza research, this is a timely and welcome book that challenges prevailing notions about the ease of bioweapons development. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -J. Fields,Choice(October 2015) Barriers to Bioweapons provides a clear and insightful examination of what is a highly technical and complex subject matter...the book provides a useful template for analyzing and explaining the relative successes or failures of a number of potential large-scale scientific endeavors beyond the realm of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is a must-read for nonproliferation experts and should be a standard text for understanding biological weapons development for some time to come. -David W. Kearn, Perspectives on Politics(September 2015) Barriers to Bioweapons is a valuable contribution to the literature on bioweapons and security. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley provides an exceptionally clear analysis of the many elements necessary for success in developing a capability to produce bioweapons and illustrates them with a number of historical case studies. The policy implications of her analysis stretch beyond bioweapons to other security issues where the transfer of knowledge is seen to pose a threat to U.S. security. This volume has much to offer scholars and policy makers alike. -Judith V. Reppy, Cornell University, coeditor of Getting to Zero

In Barriers to Bioweapons, Ben Ouagrham-Gormley similarly and persuasively argues that the challenges to producing biological weapons-whether by state or non-state actors-are considerable... The book is an attempt to demonstrate in a rigorous manner that there are significant barriers to producing bioweapons. Given the recent controversy over the publication of several papers on H5N1 influenza research, this is a timely and welcome book that challenges prevailing notions about the ease of bioweapons development. Summing Up: Highly recommended. -J. Fields,Choice(October 2015) In her excellent new book, Barriers to Bioweapons,Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley has thoroughly examinedand persuasively dismissed many assumptions.Barriers to Bioweaponsprovides a clear and insightful examination of highly technical and complex subject matter.It is a must-read for nonproliferation experts and should be a standard text for understanding biological weapons development for some time to come. -David W. Kearn, Perspectives on Politics Barriers to Bioweapons is a valuable contribution to the literature on bioweapons and security. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley provides an exceptionally clear analysis of the many elements necessary for success in developing a capability to produce bioweapons and illustrates them with a number of historical case studies. The policy implications of her analysis stretch beyond bioweapons to other security issues where the transfer of knowledge is seen to pose a threat to U.S. security. This volume has much to offer scholars and policy makers alike. -Judith V. Reppy, Cornell University, coeditor of Getting to Zero

"""In Barriers to Bioweapons, Ben Ouagrham-Gormley similarly and persuasively argues that the challenges to producing biological weapons-whether by state or non-state actors-are considerable... The book is an attempt to demonstrate in a rigorous manner that there are significant barriers to producing bioweapons. Given the recent controversy over the publication of several papers on H5N1 influenza research, this is a timely and welcome book that challenges prevailing notions about the ease of bioweapons development. Summing Up: Highly recommended.""-J. Fields,Choice(October 2015) ""Barriers to Bioweapons provides a clear and insightful examination of what is a highly technical and complex subject matter...the book provides a useful template for analyzing and explaining the relative successes or failures of a number of potential large-scale scientific endeavors beyond the realm of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is a must-read for nonproliferation experts and should be a standard text for understanding biological weapons development for some time to come."" -David W. Kearn, Perspectives on Politics(September 2015) ""Ben Ouagrham-Gormley'sbook is a fascinating study of the phenomenology of scientific knowledge, providing a compelling analysis of how knowledge is acquired, developed, transmitted, and, at the same time,diluted or lost as a result of organizational, social, economic, political, and ultimately veryhuman factors that vary widely within countries and over time.""-Janne Nolan, Nonproliferation Review (Feb 2016) ""[T]his is an overall excellent book that makes a significant contribution to the study of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. To date, existing research has overwhelmingly focused on the causes of nuclear weapons proliferation, while we know substantially less about the causes of chemical and biological weapons proliferation. This book represents an important and welcome step toward addressing that gap."" - Neil Narang, Political Science Quarterly (Spring 2016) ""Barriers to Bioweapons is a valuable contribution to the literature on bioweapons and security. Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley provides an exceptionally clear analysis of the many elements necessary for success in developing a capability to produce bioweapons and illustrates them with a number of historical case studies. The policy implications of her analysis stretch beyond bioweapons to other security issues where the transfer of knowledge is seen to pose a threat to U.S. security. This volume has much to offer scholars and policy makers alike.""-Judith V. Reppy, Cornell University, coeditor of Getting to Zero"

Author Information

Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley is Assistant Professor of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. She worked for a decade at the Monterey Institute for International Studies. She was for two years research director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies office in Kazakhstan and was founding editor of the International Export Control Observer.

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