Interdisciplinary Research to Help Meet the Security Demands of the 21st Century

The research component of CUSA focuses on undertaking high quality, interdisciplinary social science research on unconventional security threats and responses to those threats; encouraging the inclusion of social science perspectives and expertise in relevant projects that are primarily natural science based; and fostering participatory research that integrates real world experts into academic research teams, a strategy that was used to great effect in an earlier study on the politics of the transnational mine ban movement.

CUSA acts as a hub for research relevant to unconventional security affairs. In this capacity it promotes the exchange of information, acts as a point of contact with the security policy community, promotes collaborative research on campus, and provides seed funding for new projects. CUSA’s research agenda seeks to improve our understanding of the root causes of unconventional security threats and vulnerabilities, enhance risk assessments, and provide an empirical basis for policy formation.

CUSA is currently undertaking research on the following topics:

Biological Security

A confluence of recent events has focused increasing attention on the potential human and national security implications of threats from biological sources. CUSA’s work on new biological threats to human and national security considers how the increasingly globalized nature of modern society amplifies threats from biological sources including new and re-emerging infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases, and biological weapons.

Environmental Security

During the 1990s, security dynamics established during the decades long Cold War began to lose their currency. At the same time, increasing evidence about the unprecedented magnitude of human-generated environmental change was compelling. A significant number of people within the national security community began to take relationships between nature and security seriously. Our research continues to explore linkages between environmental degradation and security issues.

Global Terrorism

Contemporary global terrorist organizations make use of aspects of everyday life to create threats and exploit vulnerabilities. These new networks, that grow through both strategic and random partnerships, operate in distinctly different ways from previous terrorist groups. Understanding the nature of threats from present-day terrorist networks requires the perspectives of groups often excluded from security studies, including members of the business, law enforcement, and public health communities. Through venues such as workshops, conferences, and our Occasional Paper Series, CUSA involves these new voices in discussions about the causes and consequences of global terrorism.

Human Security

Our work in this area centers on the concerns of ordinary people for freedom from fear and want. Whether investigating the social and ecological impacts of landmines or new challenges to provide food security to people across the globe, CUSA identifies ways activities which boost human security can sharply reduce the attraction of forms of political violence and crime that threaten the interests and national security of America and its allies.