SNRE Seminar: Natural Security: 3.5 Billion Years of Survival in an Unpredictable World
Speaker: Rafe Sagarin, University of Arizona, Institute of the Environment, and SNRE (Adjunct)
Talk Title: Natural Security: 3.5 Billion Years of Survival in an Unpredictable World (temporary title)
Date: 1/21/2011
Location: BioSciences East 225
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Abstract: The diversity of biological life and biological interactions across 3.5 billion years of history offers a vast array of solutions for defense against a wide range of threats, from terrorism to cyber crime to natural disasters. Natural Security aims to learn from these solutions and apply them to national and international security strategies. Biologically inspired solutions can be applied to the full spectrum of security issues, from preparedness for unexpected catastrophic events on the home front, to organizational structures for counter-terrorism, to understanding the conditions and motivations from which terrorism and other threats arise. Fields as diverse as ecology, paleobiology, anthropology, psychology, virology and network analysis have myriad, evolutionarily-based lessons that have not been brought to bear on today’s critical security discussions. Yet lessons from these fields must be tempered by experts with real-world experience in foreign policy and international relations. Accordingly, we have developed an interdisciplinary group of life scientists and policy analysts that has been examining the process of biological evolution and its resultant outcomes as models for both analysis of existing security situations and prescriptions for addressing security threats.
