Laura Cleary and Graeme Olley worked together at the Defence Academy over a six-year period, delivering Defence Engagement. During that time they fielded a range of questions from students regarding international security, operational commitments, governance and management. Here they reunite to reflect on the impact of COVID-19.
LC: I don’t subscribe to the theory that the spread of COVID-19 is the result of a conscious decision to initiate biological warfare. I don’t think that we know enough about the virus itself, where and when it originated, or how it spreads. What we know is that the Chinese were the first to declare that there was a problem. It would help to recall that the Spanish Flu didn’t actually originate in Spain. The Spanish were simply the first to declare they had a situation they couldn’t contain. The first known case was reported at a US military base in Kansas in March 2018 (https://www.history.com/news/why-was-it-called-the-spanish-flu).
GO: Biological warfare is very difficult per se. My concern with COVID is that there are actors in the world today that may see this as an opportunity to develop a means of asymmetric or hybrid warfare. There is just one word of caution, don’t drop the test tube!
