Looking for interesting homeland security ideas
Francis Bacon wrote a book in the early 1600s called “Sylva Sylvarum: or a Natural History in Ten Centuries.” In the book, Bacon used the word “resilience.” To him it meant “The action or an act of rebounding or springing back.”
In the early 2000s, according to Appendix A of the September 2011 National Preparedness Goal report, resilience means “The ability to adapt to changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to emergencies.”
In 4 centuries the meaning of resilience has not changed much.
I don’t know how the term came to be adopted by homeland security’s mainstream lexicographers, but the search for resilience now consumes a lot of attention inside the Enterprise.
Do you know other ideas not typically associated with homeland security that might have something interesting to offer the Enterprise?
If you do, the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security invites you to enter its annual essay competition.
The formal topic is: Identify a theory or insight from a field outside homeland security that has not been applied to homeland security but should be.
You can find the official rules, including how to enter, here.
Unofficially, here’s what the rules look like:
Submission Guidelines — Your response may be general, or focus on a specific element of or discipline in homeland security. Essays may be written from any perspective – government, private sector, cultural, local community, citizen, and so on.
Who may enter — The competition is open to everyone with an interest in homeland defense and security. Center for Homeland Defense and Security employees, students and graduates (of the Master’s or Executive Leaders Programs) are not eligible.
Competition Guidelines — The essay should be no more than five single-spaced pages. Essays must be original and not published elsewhere.
Timeline — The deadline for submission is January 31, 2012. Finalists will be announced no later than May 31, 2012.
Criteria — Essays will be evaluated based on relevance to the question, innovativeness of the idea, strength of the argument, and quality of the writing.
Award — The winner will receive a $1000 cash award. The winning and four top finalist essays will be considered for publication by Homeland Security Affairs, the online journal published by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for the Homeland Defense and Security.
