Director's Lecture Series: Addressing the gaps in global biosecurity

Thursday 13 October, 6-7.30pm  
BGLT, SOAS University of London and via Zoom  
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COVID-19 has revealed that national governments and the international community are dangerously unprepared to respond to epidemics and pandemics—underscoring global vulnerabilities to future biological events that could match or exceed the devastating impacts of COVID-19. In an era when globalization, urbanization, and environmental degradation are increasing the likelihood of naturally emerging infectious disease outbreaks, the world also faces a growing risk from human-caused pandemics that could result from accidental or deliberate misuse of modern bioscience and biotechnology.  
 
The inability to rapidly identify the source of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, has underscored both the technical and political challenges to responding to potentially catastrophic biological events. The war in Ukraine has also raised concerns about disruption to regional and global security with the possibility of Russia covertly using chemical or biological weapons under a false-flag operation  

In a recent article, Angela Kane, Senior Advisor to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, declared the urgent need to bolster ‘the capabilities of the United Nations to investigate the origins of high-consequence biological events.’ Currently, there is a significant gap in UN capabilities to investigate pandemic origins when the source is unknown—for example whether the event resulted from a natural outbreak, a deliberate biological weapons attack, or a laboratory accident. The WHO has a strong comparative advantage in investigating biological events of natural origins, and the UN Security-General’s Mechanism has the authority to investigate allegations of bioweapons use, but when the origin of a pathogen is unknown there is no international body that can quickly respond and investigate.  
 
One way to address this, Kane proposes, is a ‘Joint Assessment Mechanism’ which would employ a small unit within the UN Secretary General’s Office to assess the source of biological events of unknown origins and better meet today’s threat environment. SOAS Director, Adam Habib will be joined by Angela Kane and Wilmot James, Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University, to explore how the world can addresses these gaps in the global biosecurity architecture on 13 October in a hybrid event.  
 
The SOAS Director’s Lecture Series focuses on the planetary questions of our time and how to enable a collective human response. In this historical moment, all our big challenges – pandemics, climate change, inequality, social and political polarisation – are transnational in character and require a cohering of the human community. 

This event is hosted in partnership between SOAS, University of London and the Bloomsbury SET. The Bloomsbury SET (Science, Economics, Technology) is an innovation partnership that brings together Universities with a strong reputation for creating enduring impact from their research. The programme, awarded through Research England’s Connecting Capability Fund, is led by RVC in partnership with LSHTM, SOAS University of London and the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON), led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Bloomsbury SET also works closely in conjunction with the London International Development Centre (LIDC), a consortium of seven Colleges of the University of London – shaping the future of international development.  
 
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About the speakers 

Angela Kane 

Angela Kane is a Senior Advisor to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)and served as the NTI Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow between 2021 and 2022, supporting NTI’s work on global threat reduction. Her particular focus is on NTI bio’s initiatives to reduce global catastrophic biological risks by strengthening international coordination in preventing and responding to these devastating events. 

Angela Kane spent over 35 years working for the United Nations, both in New York and in the field.  Her last positions were Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Under-Secretary-General for Management, and High Representative for Disarmament.  Prior to taking up the Fellowship, she resided in Vienna and was Vice President of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna and Senior Fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. 

Ms. Kane has taught at the Paris School of International Affairs/Sciences Po and at Tsinghua University/Schwarzman Scholars in Beijing.  She is the Chair of the United Nations University Council in Tokyo and the Co-Chair of the Regional Council on the Korean Peninsula of the World Economic Forum.  She is a member of the Group of Eminent Persons, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, as well as a Member of the Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement for Nuclear Disarmament (Japan). She is also a Member of the European Leadership Network; and chairs and serves on NGO Boards in Europe, United States, and Asia. 

Wilmot James

Wilmot James is a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University and an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He conducts research on pandemic response and biosecurity, convenes high-level meetings on planetary threats, leads the Center for Pandemic Research in the College of Arts and Sciences, and is an Associate Director in the Program in Vaccine Education at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Wilmot co-convenes the Schmidt Futures supported Columbia-Witwatersrand Vaccine Safety and Confidence-Building (VacSafe) Working Group and is deputy chair to the Wellcome Trust’s Sir Jeremy Farrar of the Vaccine Task Team (VacTask) supporting African governments in sustainable vaccine manufacturing. He serves as a senior consultant in biosecurity to the Washington DC based Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio; as a consultant to the Africa Center for Disease Control (Africa-CDC); and is co-chair of the National Framework sub-working group of the G7 led Global Partnership’s Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa. Wilmot was previously a Member of Parliament (South Africa) and opposition spokesperson on health, trade and industry, schools and higher education.

He served on the Board of Trustees for the Ford Foundation between 1996 and 2008 currently serves on the Advisory Board of Resolve to Save Lives. Wilmot is the author and/or editor of 17 books that include the policy oriented Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (2020) and a co-edited collection of Nelson Mandela’s speeches Nelson Mandela in His Own Words (2003) given to the late President on his 85th birthday

Adam Habib  

Professor Adam Habib is an academic, activist, and public intellectual. He is Director of SOAS University of London and previously VC and Principal of University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa. He holds qualifications in Political Science from the University of Natal, Wits and the City University of New York. Professor Habib is a co-founder of the African Research Universities Alliance, an affiliation of research-intensive universities on the continent. 

He has published numerous edited books and journal articles over the last three decades in the thematic areas of democratisation and its consolidation in South Africa, philanthropy, inequality, institutional reform, and South Africa's role in Africa and beyond. 

Habib’s academic contributions resulted in his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in addition to serving as a fellow of both the African Academy of Science and the Academy of Science of South Africa. He also serves on the Council of the United Nations University. 

Habib holds qualifications in Political Science from three universities, including the University of Natal and Wits. He earned his masters and doctoral qualifications from the Graduate School of the City University of New York.