American Biodefense: How Dangerous Ideas About Biological Weapons Shape National Security (2014)
Biological weapons have threatened US national security since at least World War II. Historically, however, the US military has neglected research, development, acquisition, and doctrine for biodefense. Following September 11 and the anthrax letters of 2001, the United States started spending billions of dollars per year on medical countermeasures and biological detection systems. But most of this funding now comes from the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the Department of Defense. Why has the US military neglected biodefense and allowed civilian organizations to take the lead in defending the country against biological attacks? In American Biodefense, Frank L. Smith III addresses this puzzling and largely untold story about science, technology, and national security. Smith argues that organizational frames and stereotypes have caused both military neglect and the rise of civilian biodefense. In the armed services, influential ideas about kinetic warfare have undermined defense against biological warfare. The influence of these ideas on science and technology challenges the conventional wisdom that national security policy is driven by theats or bureaucratic interests. Given the ideas at work inside the US military, Smith explains how the lessons learned from biodefense can help solve other important problems that range from radiation weapons to cyber attacks. -- Front jacket flap.
...MoreReview Thomas I. Faith (2016) Review of "American Biodefense: How Dangerous Ideas About Biological Weapons Shape National Security". Technology and Culture (pp. 495-497).
Similar Citations
Book
Alex Roland;
(2021)
Delta of Power: The Military-Industrial Complex
(/isis/citation/CBB562475074/)
Book
Roberto J. González;
(2022)
War Virtually: The Quest to Automate Conflict, Militarize Data, and Predict the Future
(/isis/citation/CBB827413331/)
Book
Sarah E. Robey;
(2022)
Atomic Americans: Citizens in a Nuclear State
(/isis/citation/CBB648725464/)
Article
Luegenbiehl, Heinz C.;
(2009)
Societal Values and Nuclear Power: A Case of Conflicting Priorities
(/isis/citation/CBB001031098/)
Book
Edward Kaplan;
(2020)
To Kill Nations: American Strategy in the Air-Atomic Age and the Rise of Mutually Assured Destruction
(/isis/citation/CBB328020999/)
Article
Berger Ziauddin;
Marti, Sibylle;
(2020)
Life after the Bomb: Nuclear Fear, Science, and Security Politics in Switzerland in the 1980s
(/isis/citation/CBB587905950/)
Book
Kalic, Sean N.;
(2012)
US Presidents and the Militarization of Space, 1946--1967
(/isis/citation/CBB001212165/)
Book
Moreno, Jonathan D.;
(2006)
Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense
(/isis/citation/CBB000772768/)
Book
Michael W. Hankins;
(2021)
Flying Camelot: The F-15, the F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia
(/isis/citation/CBB534059302/)
Book
Mario Daniels;
John Krige;
(2022)
Knowledge Regulation and National Security in Postwar America
(/isis/citation/CBB238236707/)
Book
Mark Aldrich;
(2018)
Back on Track: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1965–2015
(/isis/citation/CBB660965999/)
Book
Monteyne, David;
(2011)
Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War
(/isis/citation/CBB001212463/)
Book
Krugler, David F.;
(2006)
This Is Only a Test: How Washington, D.C, Prepared for Nuclear War
(/isis/citation/CBB000760707/)
Book
Mark Maguire;
Ursula Rao;
Nils Zurawski;
(2018)
Bodies as Evidence: Security, Knowledge, and Power
(/isis/citation/CBB090684871/)
Article
Jayson A. Altieri;
(2021)
Minutemen and Roentgens: A History of Civil Air Patrol’s Aerial Radiological Monitoring Program
(/isis/citation/CBB789535614/)
Book
Marie Cronqvist;
Rosanna Farbøl;
Casper Sylvest;
(2021)
Cold War Civil Defence in Western Europe: Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Survival and Preparedness
(/isis/citation/CBB341595049/)
Book
Nicholas Michael Sambaluk;
(2015)
The Other Space Race: Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security
(/isis/citation/CBB873284440/)
Article
Karamouzi, Eirini;
Chourchoulis, Dionysios;
(2019)
Troublemaker or peacemaker? Andreas Papandreou, the Euromissile Crisis, and the policy of peace, 1981–86
(/isis/citation/CBB063853984/)
Book
Christopher J. Fuller;
(2017)
See It/Shoot It: The Secret History of the CIA’s Lethal Drone Program
(/isis/citation/CBB712490854/)
Book
Craig Ryan;
(2015)
Sonic Wind: The Story of John Paul Stapp and How a Renegade Doctor Became the Fastest Man on Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB027020848/)
Be the first to comment!