Natural Security for a Variable and Risk-Filled World
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Authors
Sagarin, Raphael
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2010-09-00
Date
2010-09
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Language
en_US
Abstract
The twenty-first-century faces a range of severe threats to security including conflicts with non-state actors, emerging diseases, natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and climate change. This diverse set of problems would benefit from a common solution framework that can illuminate their root causes and be applied broadly to security analysis and practice. One such framework is evolutionary biology. 3.5 billion years of biological evolution have led to an enormous variety of security solutions that nonetheless share a key commonality: natural security is adaptable. Organisms in nature achieve adaptability through a decentralized organization where threats are detected and responded to peripherally, by managing uncertainty and turning it to their advantage, and by extending their adaptive capacity through symbiotic partnerships. This essay demonstrates how the basic tenets and many of the specific strategies of natural security systems can be applied to the analysis, planning and practice of security in human society. A case study from the IED attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is used to show how organizational structure, uncertainty, and symbiotic relationships all play a role in both creating and ameliorating security threats.
Type
Article
Description
This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (September 2010), v.6 no.3
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Citation
Homeland Security Affairs (September 2010), v.6 no.3
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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
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The copyright of all articles published in Homeland Security Affairs rests with the author[s] of the articles. Any commercial use of Homeland Security Affairs or the articles published herein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the copyright holder. Anyone can copy, distribute, or reuse these articles as long as the author and original source are properly cited.