Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World [Hardcover]

Raphael D. Sagarin (Editor), Terence Taylor (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0520253477 | ISBN-13: 978-0520253476 | Edition: 1

Arms races among invertebrates, intelligence gathering by the immune system and alarm calls by marmots are but a few of nature's security strategies that have been tested and modified over billions of years. This provocative book applies lessons from nature to our own toughest security problems--from global terrorism to the rise of infectious disease to natural disasters. Written by a truly multidisciplinary group including paleobiologists, anthropologists, psychologists, ecologists, and national security experts, it considers how models and ideas from evolutionary biology can improve national security strategies ranging from risk assessment, security analysis, and public policy to long-term strategic goals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Engaging . . . . A stimulating read. It opens the door to an exciting merger between political science and evolutionary theory."--Nature

"This book deserves a broad, interdisciplinary readership. . . It also illustrates how applied knowledge of evolution can promote human well-being."--Qtly Review of Biology

From the Inside Flap

"A fascinating read, and an essential and novel perspective on international security. Sagarin and his collaborators are not afraid to think outside the box, effectively making the case that we need to think about these problems in new ways."--Simon Levin, George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, Princeton University

"Sagarin and Taylor's Natural Security searches for the roots of political stability by studying interaction in its most fundamental forms, from genes and cells to ideology. This fresh, bold book heralds a vital integration of evolutionary analysis with real-life problems."--Richard Wrangham, Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard University

"As the ongoing disaster in Iraq so graphically demonstrates, we need new ways to think about international security and what policies to pursue. Drawing on modern evolutionary biology in diverse ways these essays suggest new modes of analysis and scientific additions to our social, economic and political models. The net result is an insightful and stimulating contribution to a critical debate."--Malcolm Dando, Professor of International Security, Bradford University, UK

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520253477
• ISBN-13: 978-0520253476
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #658,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars novel, pertinent, fascinating angles on national security by study of the natural world, March 26, 2009

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World (Hardcover)

Two editors from the fields of biological sciences compile 15 articles which make a consummate book on national security. A few of the authors are in the fields of politics and government; but most are in the field of life sciences, with a couple in the field of anthropology. So smoothly is the subject of national security brought together with natural security that after poring through the essays, one has to check the title to see that if one hasn't misread it. Yes, the title is "Natural Security"; but the real subject is national security.

The authors look to behaviors, attributes, anatomies, evolution, environments, and networks of the world of nature with the intention of describing overt, inherent, disguised, practical, and ingenious ways different kinds of life forms protect and defend themselves. The authors don't attempt to go far in recommending or inventing means of security. Most security measures derived from their analyses of natural phenomena are plain; or they depend on individual and group behavior and decisions the authors cannot possibly predict, regulate, or control; nor can anyone else. The primary aim of the articles is to give a new, timely perspective on national security; to outline a new conception of national security which is at once realistic (consummately realistic), nonideological, relevant, optimum, and efficient.

The articles reflect the latest research and ideas in the areas of sociobiology, physiology, immunology, neuroscience, and related areas. As ones aware of the directions in these fields know, the contemporary fields are not limited to traditional scientific subject matter or methodology. One wants to be aware that the book is not an application of the theory or phenomenon of evolution to its diverse subjects as might be gathered from the reference to Darwin in the subtitle; but rather the book embraces all of the natural world in its diversity, interconnections, symbioses, order, and vital continuation as "Darwinian" is today regarded by the editors and authors.

The openness of the approach along with the knowledge of the authors and originality of considering national security with an in-depth study of the survival of biological species leads to all sorts of unfamiliar links and associations, intriguing perspectives, and glimmerings of new ideas. The fascination of the material is not only from the general connection of biology and security, but also lines of development, coming at fundamental sociological and political matters from new angles, and finding new lessons in more familiar concepts such as considering corporations and bureaucracies as organisms. For example, the article by Luis Villarreal of the Center for Virus Research at the U. California-Irvine is "From Bacteria to Belief: Immunology and Security." Daniel Blumstein of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, U. of California-Los Angeles, writes about "Fourteen Security Lessons from Antipredator Behavior." Another article with three authors is "The Infectiousness of Terrorist Ideology: Insights from Ecology and Epidemiology."

Never has metaphor been used to more illuminating and persuasive effect. But it would be a mistake to limit the book's relevance by seeing biology as just a metaphor for national security in today's world. For with the holism of globalism, large number of migrants moving between and within regions, computer networks, the historical weakening of the nation-state, diversified loci of power, new initiatives either predatory or defensive by organizations such as gangs and communities, and related continually-changing phenomena, the contemporary world reflects the states, processes, and principles of the world of biology. And each human being and thus in many ways and to some degree society and relationships with others have biological characteristics. One sees, for instance, that medicine as pertinent to strength, prevention of disease and injury, and necessary for diagnosis and cure better presents practical, worthwhile, and hopeful action regarding global terrorism and other types of threatening violence than the size, weaponry, or capabilities of armed forces.

Through all of the diverse natural phenomena examined from all of the unusual angles in the articles, the editors spot that the "critical organizing principle for security system [is that] successful organisms rely on a system of multiple semiautonomous units that sense the environment and devise solutions for environmental problems." This essential principle for optimum, though never absolute security goes against the grain of the modern nation-state. Such natural, inbred and communal security systems are not based in any bureaucratic architectonic; nor do they fall within the paternalistic, patriarchal, semi-totalitarian framework seen by those in power as allowing for the greatest efficiency in ruling and accepted by a easily distracted, negligent public. Moreover, one surmises that those with power in the modern state would see "semiautonomous units" involved materially and to a considerable degree independently in local and systematic security as threats.

It's hard to see how the government would embrace or promote the most effective types of security systems modeled on those in the natural world as these would be unpredictable and impossible to institutionalize. Nor would they depend on government officials, regulations, etc., which are the heart and soul of government. Nonetheless, many of the systems explored can be adopted or adapted by individuals and smaller social groups such as neighborhoods for increased security. Leaving aside the thorny questions of practical application of human security systems modeled on natural ones, the collected articles make fascinating reading. They are almost like science fiction with their view of alternate worlds and scenarios both primeval and futuristic.