NCEAS Working Groups
Ecological and evolutionary models for homeland security strategy
Project Description
Biological organisms have developed a remarkable number of strategies to mitigate conflict with a broad range of adversaries in their environment. The diversity and success of these strategies, as illustrated by the millions of extant species on the Earth today, suggests that biological evolution may be a field rich with lessons for guiding societal conflict resolution and security strategy. The working group will bring leading security policy analysts together with evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and ecologists to draw on their expertise and identify evolutionary strategies that are applicable to security challenges faced by people, institutions and nations in the 21st century. These biological analogies will be developed into models of decision-making and behavior to explore alternative hypotheses related to strategies for security planning. The combination of biological and policy-oriented perspectives will allow both a rich theoretical discussion and a realistic assessment of the barriers to practical applications of theory.

Principal Investigator(s)
Raphael Sagarin
Project Dates
Start: January 28, 2005
End: December 12, 2005
completed
Participants
- Scott Atran
- Institute for Social Research
- Kennette M. Benedict
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Eric L. Berlow
- University of California, Berkeley
- Daniel Blumstein
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Susan Brandon
- Executive Office of the President
- Peter M. Buston
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Ruth David
- Advancing National Strategies and Enabling Results (ANSER)
- Gregory P. Dietl
- Yale University
- Richard K. Grosberg
- University of California, Davis
- Michael E. Hochberg
- Université de Montpellier II
- Dominic Johnson
- Princeton University
- Ferenc Jordan
- Collegium Budapest
- Bill Kastenberg
- University of California, Berkeley
- Kevin D. Lafferty
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Elizabeth M.P. Madin
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Joshua S. Madin
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Michael Moodie
- Unknown
- Elizabeth M. Prescott
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
- Raphael Sagarin
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Katherine F. Smith
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Jonathan Stevenson
- Unknown
- Terence Taylor
- International Institute for Strategic Studies
- Bradley A. Thayer
- Missouri State University
- John Tooby
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Geerat Vermeij
- University of California, Davis
- Luis Villarreal
- University of California, Irvine
Products
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Presentations / 2006
Natural Security, November 2006
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Presentations / 2007
Natural Security, May 2007
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Book Chapter / 2008
Introduction. A holistic view of national security
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, April 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, April 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, December 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, February 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, May 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, May 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, May 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, November 2008
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Presentations / 2008
Natural Security, October 2008
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Book Chapter / 2008
Population models and countersurgency strategies
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Book Chapter / 2008
The origins of natural security
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Book / 2012
Learning from the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters and Disease