Where we start
I spent more than twenty-five years in national security, most of it as an intelligence officer at the CIA. The last decade of that work centered on the CCP’s economic and technological strategy and the risk it poses to American interests. I retired from the Agency earlier this year, and I started the American Biosecurity Initiative because we’re taking the security of our medicines for granted.
The problem is complicated, our dependence on foreign suppliers runs deep, and the agencies that watch this space were built for public health, not strategic competition. That combination has left the pharmaceutical sector exposed. It reminds me of the years before 9/11. The signs were there. The policy and the organization to act on them were not.
The medicines Americans depend on rest on a supply base the country still treats like an ordinary commodity, bought from wherever it’s cheapest. We can’t change that yet, and the proposals on the table target the easy problems while the serious ones go untouched. That supply base is critical infrastructure. If a single adversary controls what goes into it, the exposure reaches every American. We’ve been slow to say that out loud.
That’s the work of the American Biosecurity Initiative. We hold that U.S. biopharmaceuticals are critical national security infrastructure. We’re here to educate the public, policymakers, and legislators about the cost of piecemeal action and to build the partnerships, voices, and policies needed to defend it.
This blog is where we make that case. You’ll find three kinds of writing here:
Some of it comes from me. I’ll write about the threat the way I learned to read it as an intelligence officer, and about the policy choices before us. I’ll be direct about where we’re heading the wrong way, including where our own policies are doing the damage.
Some comes from ABI. This is our own research and our positions on the fights that matter, from the security of the medical supply to the policies that strengthen or weaken American biotechnology. When ABI takes a side, the full argument lives here.
Some comes from voices outside ABI. Former military leaders, intelligence veterans, former administration officials, academics, and our partners. People who’ve lived inside this problem. We’ll run their essays and interviews, because the best arguments don’t all come from one place.
Where we’re going is straightforward. Over the coming months, we’ll publish original analysis and release our own research. We’re building a network of credentialed voices on the security of America’s medical supply. The threat is real. It comes from abroad and from policy failure at home. We’ll be specific about both because that’s how the country gets safer.
Jennifer Crook
Executive Director, American Biosecurity Initiative
There is a lot to get into, and the people we’ll feature are worth your time. Subscribe to follow the work.