COVID-19 Operational Environment Impacts

April 2020 No Comments

Speakers: Canton, J. (Institute for Global Futures); Giordano, J. (Georgetown University Medical Center/US Naval War College)

Date: 1 April 2020

Speaker Session Summary

SMA hosted a speaker session presented by Dr. James Canton (Institute for Global Futures) and Prof. James Giordano (Georgetown University Medical Center/US Naval War College) as a part of its SMA General Speaker Series.

Post-Pandemic Impact Futures: Socio-economic and Geopolitical Threats to US National Security– A preview of Dr. Canton’s remarks

The pandemic is a game-changer—not business as usual. This brief forecasts the possible Impact Futures on US National Security and the operational environment, given COVID-19. Pandemic Geopolitics. China’s Neo-Mercantilism, The New Normal, the Perfect Storm, the Mad Max Scenarios. Great Power clashes. Rise of New Autocracies. Threat Convergence Futures. Rethinking national security posture given biosecurity risks. US asset class value erosion. Global supply chain realignment. Exponential S&T benefits. Long term impact on jobs and social unrest. Cyberattack vectors and upsurges. China/Russia non-kinetic warfare. Financial markets implosion to recovery timelines.

COVID-19: Demonstration and Lessons of Biosecurity Risks, Threats, and Preparedness– A preview of Prof. Giordano’s remarks

COVID-19 is not a weaponized biological agent. However, the scope and magnitude of the current pandemic serves to demonstrate existing gaps, limitations, and weaknesses in the United States current biosecurity and biothreat-response infrastructure and functional capabilities. As current governmental and civilian responses to COVID-19, disruptive impact(s), influence, and effects are incurred in the biomedical, socio-economic and political domains. In this briefing, Dr. James Giordano will posit extant gaps in US biosecurity and biothreat-response, address ways that demonstration of these limitations can provide vectors for both potential adversaries’ exploitation and Us course correction, and will propose a multi-step, whole-of-nation approach to bridge existing gaps, fortify the system of surveillance, readiness, and response, ad in these ways foster a stance of increased national preparedness.