Concept of Dual Use

Abstract

There are a number of different preliminary definitions of dual use familiar in the literature. Research or technology is dual use if it can be used for both: (1) Military and civilian (i.e. non-military) purposes; (2) Beneficial and harmful purposes—where the harmful purposes are to be realised by means of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs); (3) Beneficial and harmful purposes—where either the harmful purposes involve the use of weapons as means, and usually WMDs in particular, or the harm aimed at is on a large-scale but does not necessarily involve weapons or weaponisation. I favour the third definition of “dual use”—at least as a preliminary definition—since some dual use research, such as Gain of Function research in the biological sciences, need not involve a process of weaponisation or a military purpose. However, further conceptual unpacking is called for and provided in this chapter.