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[Intro Music]
>> CHRISTOPHER BUCK: The Biological weapons Convention is the first international treaty
to ban a whole category of weapons of mass destruction,
and as such it's a very important component
in U.S. national security strategy
and indeed the strategy of all the 170 parties to the treaty.
[Music]
>> SCOTT SPENCE: What it does is it effectively prohibits
the development, production, manufacturing, stockpiling, acquisition of biological weapons.
The meeting of experts is one of two meetings that takes place every year
as part of this so-called inter-sessional process.
>> CHRISTOPHER BUCK: So it's just an incredibly valuable opportunity
for scientists, health officials, multilateral officials, national governments, law enforcement,
to combine their collective knowledge and practices, best practices in these areas,
to come up with systems of cooperation and coordination
that will enable us to ideally prevent a bio-weapons attack.
[Music]
>>SCOTT SPENCE: So the Biological Weapons Convention is an arms control treaty
but it's important to realize that it's also a non-proliferation treaty.
It's a very interesting treaty in that actors, experts
that you would never think of being involved in the implementation of this treaty are.
So for example why are customs officials involved with the implementation of this treaty?
They are responsible for ensuring that what comes across their border --
going in or going out --
is legitimate and would not be used, for example, to produce or manufacture biological weapons.
[Music]
>> CHRISTOPHER BUCK: Advances in scientific technology, particularly in the health fields,
are occurring at such a rapid rate that they not only provide new opportunities
for preventing and curing diseases, they also unfortunately provide
potential for abuse of these technologies in the bio-weapons field, for example.
So it's very important that experts from countries,
both policy areas and technical areas, and from a broad array of agencies
meet regularly to exchange information and ideas about how to address these technology
challenges.
[Music]
>> BEN STEYN: The convention is there to prohibit the use of biological agents or disease
as a method of warfare or as weapons.
But I also believe there is a great potential in this convention
to help the world to also combat natural disease.
[Music]
>> BEN STEYN: So by increasing health capabilities all over the world
against natural disease, the rest will follow.
>> JUDIT KÖRÖMI: And every year there's something that happens
that may be of relevance and interest.
For example this year's outbreak of the influenza virus in China,
I think it was one of the most interesting parts of the meeting
when we heard from the World Health Organization, from the Chinese delegation, and from the
American delegation how they managed the situation,
how they managed to cooperate through international cooperation
to contain the disease and to make sure that it would not spread
and would not kill more people.
>> HERAWATI SUDOYO: It's not about the focus of the meeting,
but it is about the people or the experts who participate in this meeting.
Education and awareness-raising is the key.
[Music]
>> DAVID BENSON: The Mini University concept grew out of the idea that
diplomats are rather busy people so they don't have the time really
to find out about science and technology issues.
For example the notion of molecular epidemiology may come up in the context of the BWC
but many diplomats may not know what that is.
So what we tried to do was to explain how one can use genome sequencing of micro-organisms
to actually trace the path of an outbreak and sometimes even deter it in its origins.
>> JUDIT KÖRÖMI: The most important thing is the continuous examination
and exchange of views
on the functioning of the treaty.
This is all about expressing the ownership, the responsibility, the general responsibility
for the implementation of the convention, for the purposes and the fundamental goal
that is laid out in the convention, and that is to have a world free of biological weapons.
[Music]