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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Margaret KosalMargaret E. Kosal, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in the Washington Examiner on proposed U.S. preparedness and federal policy to respond to the use of biological weapons by terrorists. Because the science to weaponize pathogens is more sophisticated than ever, a panel of bioterrism experts says that the U.S. government is not prepared to handle a large-scale chemical attack.
Putting the responsibilities for handling a bioterror attack into one agency, however, could be a bad idea, said Kosal. She said the Department of Defense, which historically has taken on bioterrorism preparation, has a drastically different mission than, say, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She said that a central agency would prepare for a general attack and would inevitably ignore critical details because of a lack of expertise.
"If one tried to collapse all of the resources and all of the budgets for bioterrorism response into one agency, we would end up less prepared than we are now," Kosal said.
Margaret E. Kosal’s research explores the relationships among technology, strategy, and governance. Her research focuses on two, often intersecting, areas: reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and understanding the role of emerging technologies for security.
