During public health emergencies (PHEs) involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear threats or emerging infectious diseases, medical countermeasures (MCMs) (e.g., drugs, vaccines, devices) may need to be dispensed or administered to affected populations to help mitigate the human health impact of the threat. The optimal MCMs determined for use during an emergency might be U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved but used in unapproved ways (e.g., in a new age group or against a new agent); FDA approved using animal models because human efficacy testing is not ethical or feasible; or not yet FDA approved for any indication. As part of the United States' scientific and research preparedness enterprise, there is an imperative to go "beyond the last mile" of MCM dispensing and administration to build and maintain a national capability to monitor and assess the use of MCMs (e.g., safety, compliance, clinical benefit) after they have been dispensed during PHEs. To further the discussion on this need, the Board on Health Sciences Policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a 2-day public workshop, Building a National Capability to Monitor and Assess Medical Countermeasure Use in Response to Public Health Emergencies. The workshop, sponsored by FDA, was held on June 6â€"7, 2017, in Washington, DC. Workshop participants discussed the roles and efforts of the federal government and of relevant stakeholders with an interest in building and maintaining a national PHE MCM active monitoring and assessment capability. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Dept. of State¿s Antiterrorism Assistance program¿s objectives are to provide partner nations with counter-terrorism training and equipment, improve bilateral ties, and increase respect for human rights. State¿s Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism provides policy guidance and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Office of Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA), manages program operations. This report assesses: (1) State¿s guidance for determining ATA priorities; (2) how State coordinates ATA with other counter-terrorism programs; (3) the extent State established ATA program goals and measures; and (4) State¿s reporting on U.S. counter-terrorism assistance. Includes recommendations. Illustrations.

This book looks into four areas of our world's international security crisis: the growing threat of America's homegrown jihadists, the continuing rise of terrorism, the causes of gross violations of human rights, and the pervasiveness of civil war. When American jihadists join such international terrorist organizations as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Al Qaeda, the danger to security and stability is often magnified on both global and domestic fronts. The global rise of terrorism in turn causes a deterioration in the quality of human rights for politically disadvantaged people or minority groups within a national territory; meanwhile, the internal crisis created by terrorist violence and human rights violations can expedite the development of civil war, which is likely to endanger domestic and international stability. Taking a consistent theoretical and empirical approach, Emerging Security Challenges: American Jihad, Terrorism, Civil War, and Human Rights explicates the relationships among these four closely related areas of concern for national security. Each chapter presents systematic, empirical evidence of security trends for more than 100 sample countries, determined using the most current statistical methods. Given that security studies should provide practical policy recommendations, this book also offers potentially effective policy suggestions at the end of each chapter.