NATO on Friday published details on a new “international strategy to govern the responsible development and use of biotechnologies and human enhancement technologies” adopted by bloc leaders in February, detailing the need to engage in biological and human enhancement research, in part on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that Russia is planning to use chemical and biological weapons.
The document, which appeared on NATO’s official website, outlines the alliance’s expectation that biotech and human enhancement (BHE) technologies will “transform our economies, societies, security and defense in unprecedented and unforeseeable ways.”
The bloc cites biotech’s use to modify biological processes, cells or cellular compounds as a set of “opportunities” for the Western alliance “to enhance our defense and security” via the detection, identification and monitoring of chemical biological, radiological and nuclear threats “using AI-enabled bio-sensors.”
Also promising, in the alliance’s estimation, is biotech and human enhancement technologies’ potential to “leverage” these materials’ “unique properties” for “military platforms and infrastructure, including those that are stronger, lighter, self-healing, less toxic, more efficient, and/or faster to manufacture than current alternatives.”
The document points to “risks” posed to alliance members’ militaries, societies and the environment by the “unpredictable spread of biological agents with potentially irreversible impacts” (this passage is ironic, given documented evidence of the role of US state-funded gain of function research in sparking the coronavirus pandemic in 2019).
Along with risks come “opportunities to leverage human enhancement technologies for our defense and security” through “biotechnological and non-biotechnological interventions that enable individuals to operate beyond normal human limits or abilities,” the alliance said.
The document cites “military medicine and rehabilitation of military personnel,” including advances in prosthetics, health measurement devices, exoskeletons, and “human-machine interfaces and fatigue countermeasures” which “can enhance decision-making beyond baseline human capabilities” among the “opportunities” which have become available.
Mindful of the potential ethical concerns, the alliance promised to do its best to “maintain NATO’s technological edge vis-à-vis strategic competitors and potential adversaries” in the biotech and human enhancement realm while using tehse technologies in line with “our norms, values and commitment to international law.”
Over the past two years, Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops have documented in detail just how deep NATO’s commitment to its “norms and values” goes in Ukraine, citing alliance scientists’ use of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians as literal human guinea pigs for a series of experiments, including deliberate infection with deadly viruses to gauge response, human trials for new pharmaceutical products, and work on deadly pathogens designed specifically to target certain genotypes.
At the same time as it talked up the “opportunities” in this area, the alliance used scaremongering to highlight the ostensible urgency of timely “investments” in biotech and human enhancement to prevent Russia from gaining an advantage.
“The alliance’s strategic competitors and potential adversaries systematically invest in BHE technologies, including for their military and security benefits. With biotechnological experimentation increasingly less expensive and more available today, novel proliferation risks also extend to non-state actors, including terrorist groups,” the NATO document says.
“Russia continues to invest heavily in BHE. Russia has also led efforts to undermine global norms against the proliferation and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Russia has dangerously increased the spread of disinformation about biological and chemical weapons, including during the war against Ukraine. The alliance has grave concerns that Russia is considering further use of chemical or biological weapons in the future.”
Instead, NATO hopes to “operationalize” its principles to “responsibly” fast track the development of “select BHE technologies,” including by establishing a “BHE Experts Group” to advise the secretary general, and facilitating collaboration with private sector and academic partners and the “NATO Innovation Fund” for research and development activities.