Understanding the Landscape of Disruption, Ideation and Innovation for Defence and Security

Abstract

What do disruption, ideation and innovation have in common? How do disruptions, ideas and innovation coexist within defence and security? They all influence and impact decision-making. Disruptions drive decision-making. Ideation raises solutions to resolve the disruptions and innovation brings ideas into life. While disruptions may be common place in the business world, where disruptive technologies displace pre-existing ones; we are becoming more aware and sensitive to disruptions in the defence and security landscape stemming from new technologies and large-scale shocks on society such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. For example, Saha and Chakrabarti (South Asian Surv 28:111–132, 2021: 112) argues that “COVID-19 has firmly established itself as the single largest security disrupter of this century in the non-traditional sense. It has necessitated a recalibration of securitisation framework…”. Security disruptors that create challenges to global and national security interests manifest in events like “…the WannaCry cyber-attack, global terrorism, serious and organized crime, disease vectors, and natural disasters” (Masys in Handbook of security science. Springer, 2021). Such events are shaping the security calculus across health security, economic security, food security and energy security which are emerging as interrelated concepts that characterize the security landscape as complex. Weick and Sutcliffe argue that: “unexpected events often audit our resilience, everything that was left unprepared becomes a complex problem, and every weakness comes rushing to the forefront”. (in 2007:2). With a defence and security landscape inundated with event and technological disruptions, the requirement for ideation and innovation becomes paramount. This edited book explores types of disruptions in defence and security, ways to assess disruptions triggered by technological advancements or the lack of legal frameworks; the consequent delays or disruptions to making decisions, creative idea generation and finally the innovative ways to counter such disruptions.

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