Publications

In November 2017, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (“the Center”) hosted a Track II dialogue (i.e. a non-governmental engagement) on biosecurity between experts from the United States and the Republic of India. The dialogue, which was held in Washington, DC, was organized in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology (part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India). This was the third meeting of the dialogue; the first was held in Washington, DC in September 2016, and the second in New Delhi, India, in February 2017. The effort is supported by the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC, which is sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, DTRA) of the US Air Force Institute for National Security Studies.

On December 2-3, 2015, the UPMC Center for Health Security hosted the second meeting of Track II biosecurity dialogue between the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The meeting took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and was co-sponsored by the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH). The dialogue is supported by the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC) of the Center on Contemporary Conflict, sponsored by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

The purpose of the second meeting of the dialogue – which is the focus of this report – was to engage participants in deeper conversations around the unique biosecurity landscapes of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the US; examine ongoing national, regional, and global biosecurity threats; identify and critique current policies and approaches to biological threat mitigation; and exchange best practices in biorisk management to strengthen responses to emerging and evolving biological threats. The dialogue featured participants representing various levels of academia, and government, including experts in the life sciences, defense, public health, animal health, journalism, medicine, terrorism, and security.