Plagues, paranoia, and Cold War blowback: The continuing national security risk of the Soviet-United States biological arms race

The Cold War biological arms race is a site of contention within the geopolitical landscape under the theories of containment and mutually assured destruction. Rapid proliferation of biological weapons creates instability within the construction of biosecurity and is further complicated by the status of the Russian Federation and its stiffening of international relations with the United States. The thesis will analyze the impact of the Cold War biological arms race within national security policy, particularly in terms of terrorism and Russian movement into a new Cold War mentality, marked by the increasing lack of transparency. The analysis will highlight inefficiencies of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention between the United States and the Russian Federation to delineate the reasons needed for a foreign relations focus on bioterrorism by non-state actors and the influence of the Soviet Union on the current crisis of the global eradication of biological weapons.