The bioinformational dilemma: where bioinformational diplomacy meets cyberbiosecurity

ABSTRACT

Bioinformational diplomacy is a field of practice that emerges from the politics of biological information exchange during global public health emergencies. Cyberbiosecurity is a field of practice that emerges from the need to secure material at the interface of the digital and biological worlds from misuse and exploitation. Bioinformational diplomacy arises from the intersection of biologically-derived information becoming acutely valuable to national security actors, and the secrecy with which some valuable bioinformation is handled during global public health emergencies. This article analyses bioinformational diplomacy in relation to cyberbiosecurity and shows that both fields of practice are anchored by the concept of bioinformational secrecy. This paper explores the cooperative exchange and competitive exfiltration of bioinformation using the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study. During the COVID-19 pandemic, states sought to protect and covertly acquire certain types of bioinformation. This highlighted a potentially destabilising security dilemma that requires ongoing management via the practice of bioinformational diplomacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Bioinformational diplomacy
• cyberbiosecurity
• COVID-19
• bioinformational secrecy
• security dilemma
• bioinformational dilemma

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the support, advice and encouragement of Dr Jon Symons and Prof Sakkie Pretorius in undertaking this research.

Disclosure statement

Thom Dixon is Vice President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs NSW (AIIA NSW). The AIIA NSW does not take policy positions and T.A.D.’s views are expressed solely in his individual capacity.

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Notes on contributors

Thom Andrew Dixon

Thom Dixon is undertaking a PhD at Macquarie University. In 2018, he completed a Non-resident WSD-Handa Fellowship with the Pacific Forum on synthetic biology and Australian foreign policy. Thom is an Emerging Leader alumni of the 2017 EU-Australia Leadership Forum and an alumni of the 2021 US-Australia Next-Generation Leadership Initiative. He is the Manager, National Security and Defence at Macquarie University and Vice President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs NSW. He researches the convergence of the life sciences with the information sciences and the impact this is having on international relations.