Anticipating Nanotechnology Risk: Can the US and EU Develop Internationally Harmonized Approaches?

How can the international community deal with the uncertain risks of newly emerging technologies? The question of anticipatory risk regulation remains one of the most intractable problems in global governance. Existing international institutions are often limited in their coverage of new risks; international governance architectures are often fractured and ineffective; and significant time lags persist between the emergence of new risks and institutional policy responses. National institutions tend to be earlier in identifying and managing technology risk; but they largely follow domestic imperatives and do not necessarily take into account the need for internationally coordinated political responses. This paper examines the question of anticipatory risk governance within the context of emerging nanotechnologies. It investigates the peculiar regulatory challenges that emerging nanosciences and technologies pose; analyses existing policy responses in the two leading nanotech areas: the United States and the European Union; and identifies key barriers to the development of a more internationally coordinated and convergent risk governance approach. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]