Qualifying Examination for Advancement to Candidacy

Biodefense Graduate Program

Department of Public and International Affairs

GeorgeMasonUniversity

Spring 2011

This exam is divided into four sections: you must answer one question from each section. All answers are to be typed with 12-font, 1-inch margin on all sides, double-spaced, and numbered. Include your name and GMU ID number on each page, either top or bottom. Each answer should be at least 5 pages long with the entire exam about 20 pages in total. (You may exceed this target, but do not go below it!)

The exam is open book and note but no collaboration is allowed. You must sign and submit an honor statement with your completed exam. If you are submitting the exam by email attachment, you may fax the honor statement to 703-993-1399. Failure to submit the signed honor statement is grounds for failing the exam.

All sources are permitted, including use of the internet, provided they are documented. Citations of sources and the sparing use of short quotations of published material and classwork are encouraged when 1) they support the student's independent line of argument, analysis, and justification; and 2) when these are properly cited. When you include quotations or paraphrases of written material or lectures, be sure to cite your sources using a recognized citation format such as APA, Chicago Manual of Style, or MLA.

The Spring 2011 exam date is scheduled for April 25-26, 2011. The exam will be distributed at 9:00 AM on April 25 and due back in Robinson A, room 201 to Amanda Myers by 5:00 PM on April 26. The only acceptable reasons for not meeting this deadline are serious illness, a car accident, or a death in the immediate family.

It is strongly recommended that you pick up and return the exam in person at the PIA office in Room 201 of Robinson-A building, Fairfax campus. However, it may be emailed to you by written request to . If you wish to return the exam by email, you must send it before 5:00 p.m. on April 26 to . If you choose to receive and/or submit your exam by email, be advised that all risks are on the student to receive and submit the exam by the deadlines noted above. It is suggested that you send the exam back from more than one email account to ensure its arrival before the deadline. The entire exam is to be saved as one Microsoft Word document, and sent as an attachment or printed out for submission in person. Do not send the exam as text in the body of an email.

Please consult the General Instructions for the Qualifying Exam for further details on the exam.

Department ofPublic and International Affairs

Biodefense Graduate Program

Spring 2011 PhD Qualifying Exam

Honor Statement

Date ______

I hereby certify on my honor that I will not collaborate with anyone during this exam to include any time between 9:00 a.m.April 25, 2011 to 5:00 p.m.April 26, 2011.

I pledge to uphold the George Mason University Honor Code which forbids cheating, attempted cheating, plagiarism, stealing, and lying in matters related to academic work. Violations of the Honor Code will not be tolerated and will be referred to the Honor Committee for investigation.

I understand that plagiarism encompasses the following:

1. Presenting as one's own the words, the work, or the opinions of someone else without proper acknowledgment.

2. Borrowing from the arrangement of material, the sequence of ideas, or the pattern of thought of someone else without proper acknowledgement.

3. Borrowing extensively from the arrangement of material, the sequence of ideas, or the pattern of thought of someone else.

Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving that person credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or endnotes; a simple listing of books and articles is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in an academic setting. Student writers are often confused as to what should be cited. Some think that only direct quotations need to be credited. While direct quotations do need citations, so do paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual information formerly unknown to the writers or which the writers did not discover themselves. Exceptions for this include factual information which can be obtained from a variety of sources, the writers' own insights or findings from their own field research, and what has been termed common knowledge. What constitutes common knowledge can sometimes be precarious; what is common knowledge for one audience may not be so for another. In such situations, it is helpful, to keep the reader in mind and to think of citations as being "reader friendly." In other words, writers provide a citation for any piece of information that they think their readers might want to investigate further. Not only is this attitude considerate of readers, it will almost certainly ensure that writers will never be guilty of plagiarism.

Student Name (please print) ______

Student Signature ______

GMU ID #______

Answer 1 question from each of the following four sections:

1. Nonproliferation

  1. The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) will be held in December 2011. Assess the main strengths and weaknesses of the current regime, including formal treaty-related activities and commitments as well as normative aspects. Provide two recommendations for policies that could be adopted at the Review Conference to strengthen the regime.
  1. In a speech in Prague in 2009, President Barack Obama called for “a world without nuclear weapons.” Is nuclear disarmament feasible? Is it desirable? Provide the strongest arguments and evidence on both sides of the debate.

2. Policy

  1. Discuss the different definitions of biosecurity. Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of alternative formulations. What are the policy implications of each? Provide specific examples to support your analysis.
  1. Identify the pros and cons of submitting the CTBT for ratification in 2011. Indicate how the treaty can help reinforce the nuclear nonproliferation regime and improve the chances of complete disarmament in the future. Identify the groups that might oppose the treaty and their potential arguments. Suggest ways to counter those arguments.

3. Terrorism

  1. In 2008, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism wrote that, “Given the high level of know-how needed to use disease as a weapon to cause mass casualties, the United States should be less concerned that terrorists will become biologists and far more concerned that biologists will become terrorists.” Explain why you agree or disagree with that assessment.
  1. Some scholars have argued that al Qaeda has managed to become the world’s first terrorist nuclear power without even possessing a nuclear weapon. Discuss the merits of this view.

4. Science

  1. The genome of Bacillus anthracis is highly homologous to that of other Bacillus species. Discuss what factors make Bacillus anthracis pathogenic while other related bacteria, such a Bacillus thuringiensis, are not. What is the potential, either naturally or intentionally, that a bacterium such asB. thuringiensis might become or be made pathogenic.
  1. The World Health Assembly has several timesdebated the question of the destruction of the remaining stocks of variola virus. Present the arguments for and against destruction. Take a stance and support it with a well-reasoned argument.

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