The threat of biological warfare is real – a new book describes the potential devastation

Annie Jacobsen’s Biological War: A Scenario is a factually grounded book that reads like a thriller.

It tells the story of a hypothetical but realistic pathogen, built to cause maximum destruction, that is leaked from a research laboratory.

The pathogen quickly causes anarchy and mass casualties around the world.

Review: Biological War: A Scenario – Annie Jacobsen (Torva) The book follows the same format as Jacobsen’s previous bestseller, Nuclear War: A Scenario , combining investigative journalism with speculative history, but in this case the enemy is invisible, difficult to detect and less well known than nuclear weapons.

Jacobsen’s hypothetical scenario plays out day-by-day across the world.

The point of view shifts between labs, Pentagon bunkers, city streets and military facilities.

These scenes are interspersed with “history lessons” that describe previous biological weapons events, pandemics and government policies.

The narrative structure keeps the reader glued to the page, taking in the ensuing horror.

The language can sometimes be hyperbolic – for example, “military-grade DNA amplification technology” (this doesn’t exist) – adding to the thriller-like tone.

But the strength of the book is its sources.

It is based on interviews with ex-military and government experts, defected Russian biological weapons engineers, and even the chief executive officer of OpenAI, Sam Altman.

These add credibility to an otherwise too-scary-to-be-believable story.

An airborne plague The first section of Jacobsen’s book covers the history of biotechnology and biological weapons development.

It starts with the 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawing their use, then notes subsequent violations of the protocol during the second world war and Cold War.