Greyzone Genomics

Large-scale genetic technologies are currently revolutionizing human health. At the same time, humankind is faced with an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape, raising alarms of how recent breakthroughs in DNA sequencing and synthesis could be misused as a tool in power struggles. Discussions of the risks for misuse of genetic technology in international conflict have until now typically been limited to fear-based scenarios of “ethnic bioweapons”. 

This Theme contend that there are several more scenarios for misuse of genetic technology in international conflict, which have been overlooked as they require a multidisciplinary approach for proper assessment. To address this, the Theme will explore novel, multidisciplinary methods for assessing risks of emerging biotechnologies, focusing on genomics and synthetic biology as potential parts of hybrid warfare. 

By exploring how genetic technologies could be exploited by an unscrupulous “bad actor”, perspectives of military tactics, intelligence analysis and information warfare will be integrated into probability assessments. A series of prioritised risk scenarios that will be the substrate for a set of seminars where the scientific community engage with national security stakeholders in mutual discussions on ways to counteract misuse of emerging genetic technologies. Theme aims to open up a new research frontier on the border between medicine and national security studies and to explore countermeasures against the most probable and consequential scenarios.