Natural Security: Ecologist Says Evolution Offers Important Lessons for Security Policy

Policymakers should look at Earth's 3.5 billion-year history of biological evolution for strategies to combat modern security threats, ecologist Raphael Sagarin urged at a AAAS briefing.

By modeling submarine hulls on hydrodynamic fish bodies or federal agencies on the highly-adaptive human immune system, Sagarin said that studying the adaptation of "20 million success stories" of species on Earth could yield responses to tough threats including global terrorism, natural disasters, and infectious disease.

"Just as organisms were forced to adapt to a dangerous environment with predators and limited resources, the United States could explore a similar approach to its security allowing it to adapt to a changing environment," said Sagarin at the 11 April briefing.

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