Despite the vital importance of the emerging area of biotechnology and its role in defense planning and policymaking, no definitive book has been written on the topic for the defense policymaker, the military student, and the private-sector bioscientist interested in the "emerging opportunities market" of national security. This edited volume is intended to help close this gap and provide the necessary backdrop for thinking strategically about biology in defense planning and policymaking. This volume is about applications of the biological sciences, here called "biologically inspired...

The Giggle Factor (GF). Mention "Planetary Defense" and you'll soon understand. Even without invoking the sinister vision of alien beings arriving to enslave or destroy humanity, the eyebrows of serious and senior members of the national defense and scientific communities go askew when the subject is broached, whether at cocktail parties or congressional budget hearings. Even the most ardent supporters of defending the Earth from cataclysmic cometary or asteroidal impacts share occasional public or private chuckles with colleagues and skeptics-behavior considered unthinkable when discussing...

The United States is one of eight Arctic nations. Approximately 1,000 miles of the Alaskan coastline border, and 200,000 square nautical miles of the U.S. exclusive economic zone are encompassed in, the Arctic Ocean. As economic opportunities in the Arctic steadily increase, the United States is realizing the strategic importance of the Arctic, but our nation lacks the infrastructure, command and control structure, and Arctic-capable assets to achieve national strategic objectives. Since 2009, the United States has progressively released strategic documents outlining the U.S. interests and...

By the late 1990s, the term WMD was an integral part of American national security discourse, as evident by its growing usage. A full text search of the New York Times identified the number of stories every year from 1945 to 2010 using the term WMD or a variant. Other than 1973, the term appeared in at least one article every year during that 65-year period. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, it appeared in stories about 30 times every year, declining to an average of only 20 a year in the late 1950s and the 1960s. There were fewer than nine stories every year on average during the 1970s...

This book examines the national security policies and strategies of the United States (U.S.) as they address terrorism and the root causes of terrorism in an information age. It focuses on the root causes of terrorism and the enduring nature of the Global Islamist Movement as manifested by its flagship terrorist organization, al-Qaeda. The thesis summarizes the Global Islamist Movement's historic and theological foundations, its ideology, and its published strategy in order to argue the enduring nature of the movement's threat to U.S. interests globally. The thesis also assesses and...

As America's armed forces face an extremely complex and chaotic trategic environment, the ability to maintain an advantage over an uncertain adversary is a constant challenge. The world is currently seeing an increasing number of economic and political superpowers, a rise in the ability of state and non-state actors to produce nuclear weapons and an increase in the capability of violent extremist organizations to fund and support terrorist activities. During this time of global insecurity, the United States must stay determined and focused in order to protect the American people, its allies...