vol 3: Development
cap 1: Epistemology
page 8: Security
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... to restore theology to the mainstream of science
Security
Trust, truth and honesty
The elements of trust, truth, and honesty form the foundation of security, which is one prerequisite for the experience of heaven. We may rest in peace when we know that all threats to our wellbeing are taken care of. On the other hand, a state of insecurity not only causes us psychological trauma, but prevents (through debilitating loss) the accumulation of physical, intellectual and social capital and the wellbeing that comes with it.
We may speculate that the world has become a safer place since the end of the cold war, since the probability of mutual assured destruction seems to have decreased. Andrew Mack On the other hand, the wide publicity given to smaller wars and to terrorism has brought security to the forefront as a global issue. This development has coincided with growing awareness that our impact on the physiology of the planet is dangerously excessive. IPCC
It is clear that we will not have complete security until we do away with warring factions. Since we the human instinct for survival is so strong that we will fight rather than starve, the clear route to security is to guarantee every individual a living, a place in the sun. This is natural justice. To implement such justice, we need systems that work for everybody, not just for privileged subsets of the population.
Devising such systems while preserving the integrity of the earth is our greatest challenge. To meet this challenge we need at a globally acceptable vision of the whole environment of human life. Knowing the nature of our world helps us to work out what to do and what not to do. It is the aim of natural theology to articulate this natural vision of the world as a step toward security and peace.
Further reading
Books
| Barnaby, Frank, How to Build a Nuclear Bomb and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, NationBooks 2004 Book Description: 'Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are the greatest threat to national security in the twenty-first century. How to Build a Nuclear Bomb explains what it takes for a rogue state or terrorist group to obtain and use them. But nuclear weapons and terrorism expert Frank Barnaby has not written a collection of scare stories. His purpose in How to Build a Nuclear Bomb is to counteract the "misinformation, often put out for propaganda purposes" and general ignorance on this most urgent of topics. Barnaby describes, in straightforward, non-sensational terms what is involved when a state or a terrorist group sets out to make a weapon of mass destruction, what they are capable of doing, and what is needed to produce one. By outlining the parameters of the problem, Barnaby is able to accurately gauge the threat that WMD pose, arguing that counterterrorist measures urgently need to be stepped up to meet the challenges of a new era of international terror.' Amazon back |
| Barnes, Peter, Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons, Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2006 Amazon Editorial Reviews Book Description 'In Capitalism 3.0, Peter Barnes redefines the debate about the costs and benefits of the operating system known as the free market. Despite clunky features, early versions of capitalism were somewhat successful. The current model, however, is packed with proprietary features that benefit a lucky few while threatening to crash the system for everyone else. Far from being "free," the market is accessible only to huge corporations that reap the benefits while passing the costs on to the consumer. Barnes maps out a better way. Drawn from his own career as a highly successful entrepreneur, the author's vision of capitalism includes alternatives to the current profit-driven corporate approach, new legal entities, and a more responsible use of markets and property rights. Capitalism 3.0 offers viable solutions to some of the country's most pressing economic, environmental, and social concerns.' Amazon back |
| Macy, Joanna Rogers, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, New Society Publishers 1983 Introduction: 'This book is a guide to despair and empowerment work. The term refers to the psychological and spiritual work of dealing with our knowledge and feelings about the present planetary crisis in ways that release energy and vision for creative response. ... The work overcomes patterns of avoidance and psychic numbing; it builds compassion, community and commitment to act.' (xiii) Amazon back |
| Shulman, Seth, Undermining Science: Suprression and Distortion in the Bush Administration, University of California Press 2007 Amazon Book Description 'This vitally important exposé shows how the Bush administration has systematically misled Americans on a wide range of scientific issues affecting public health, foreign policy, and the environment by ignoring, suppressing, manipulating, or even distorting scientific research. It is the first book to focus exclusively on how this explosive issue has played out during the Presidency of George W. Bush and the first to comprehensively document his administration's abuses of science. In 2001, a group of eminent American scientists affiliated with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) contacted Seth Shulman, an experienced investigative journalist, to look into charges of serious mishandling of scientific information in the current administration. Shulman's investigation resulted in the groundbreaking report "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policy Making," which served as the basis for a highly publicized UCS scientists' statement accusing the Bush administration of a misuse of science that was signed by dozens of Nobel laureates, National Medal of Science recipients, and members of the National Academy of Sciences. To date, more than 8,000 scientists across the country have signed the statement based upon Shulman's reporting. This book, drawing upon scores of interviews and including never-released information, goes beyond the UCS report to document the Bush administration's suppression and distortion of science, bringing this issue to a wider audience. Undermining Science covers: * The Bush administration's abuse and misuse of science in areas including stem cell research, AIDS prevention, environmental protection, the Iraq war, the teaching of evolution, and global warming; * The administration's use of political litmus tests in selecting administrators for science-based agencies and in selecting scientists on federal advisory committees; * The dangerous consequences of the Bush administration's war on science for the caliber and integrity of the nation's scientific research. Shulman explains that, by knowingly misrepresenting and suppressing the truth, the Bush administration broke its covenant with its constituents in the most fundamental way possible, with consequences that reach far beyond the scientific community.' Amazon back |
| Weinberger, Sharon, Imaginary Weapons: A Journey through the Pentagon;s Scientific Underworld, Nation Books 2005 Amazon Editorial Review:Publishers Weekly 'The Pentagon's fascination with fringe science is old news, writes veteran defense reporter Weinberger in this incisive study, but the Bush administration has pushed it to new levels of wackiness. After reviewing our government's pursuit of antimatter weapons, psychics and telepathy, she focuses on a "nuclear hand grenade" that may cost billions and seems certain to fail. Before the War on Terror and the avalanche of government money for advanced new weapons, few paid attention to physicists who said they could harness the energy of unstable atomic nuclei, or "isomers," through a wildly expensive process involving atomic reactors. But in recent years, a group of fringe scientists aided by defense industry insiders has convinced the Pentagon that America's post-9/11 survival depends on developing an isomer bomb. While proponents compare it to the Manhattan Project, opponents point out that independent researchers have not been able to duplicate the results attained by isomer enthusiasts, and that many assumptions behind the bomb contradict the laws of physics. Though Congress canceled isomer bomb development in 2004, the Department of Energy found $5 million to continue the research.' Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Amazon back |
| Wright, Peter, and Paul Greengrass, Spycatcher, Dell 1988 Amazon customer review: The Real MI5, June 14, 2002 'I'd been dying to read this book since I first heard Rosselson's song Ballad of a Spycatcher (basically the plot and best lines of Peter Wright's book). The book more than lived up to expectations. Although the style is sometimes dry and methodical, for the most part Wright takes the reader from the early "flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" stages of his work in counterintelligence as his branch of MI5 takes on a Soviet spy network 15 times its size, through the middle years when brilliant inventions and tactics are leaked to the Russians by an unknown, high-level source, through his heartbreaking autumn years when proving or disproving suspicions means long interrogations that can ruin the reputations of good men or let traitors slip away. Wright is a great guide through the arcane world of real MI5 work, and he has a splendidly British sense of humor that breaks the tension when needed. This book totally changed the way I thought of the British Secret Service.' A reader Amazon back |
Links
| Andrew Mack The Human Security Report Prof. Andrew Mack is director of the Human Security Center at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and former director of the Strategic Planning Unit in the Executive Office of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from 1998 to 2001 'Improbable though it may seem, the UN is also a real success story. Over the past 15 years there has been real progress toward realizing the organization?s core mandate - spelled out in its 1945 charter - "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." The just-released Human Security Report, an independent study funded by five governments and published by the Oxford University Press, draws on a wide range of little-publicized scholarly research, plus its own specially commissioned studies, to present a portrait of global security sharply at odds with conventional wisdom (see: www.humansecurityreport.info). The report reveals that after five decades of inexorable increase, the number of armed conflicts started to fall worldwide in the early 1990s. By 2003, there were 40 percent fewer conflicts than in 1992. The deadliest conflicts - those with 1,000 or more battle deaths - fell by 80 percent. Cases of mass slaughter of civilians also dropped by 80 percent, while core human rights abuses have declined in five out of six regions of the developing world since the mid-1990s.' back |
| European Comission Green Paper Towards a European Strategy for Security of Energy Supply back |
| The British Library THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world's knowledge 'The British Library is one of the world's great knowledge institutions. It holds over 150 million items from every age of global civilisation, from historical documents to the latest information for business and research. This website describes our collections and our wide range of services. You can search our catalogues and you can order copies of some documents online. You can also view some of the cultural treasures on show in our galleries in London, which are open to all, free of charge, seven days a week.' back |
| The United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIFEM - A Portal on Women, Peace and Security 'This portal provides background information and timely updates on the impact of armed conflict on women and women's role in peace-building. It will systematically gather information and analysis both to inform decision-makers and to provoke greater response to women's experience of war and peace making. It is one of UNIFEM's contributions to the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, passed unanimously in October of 2000. This groundbreaking resolution explicitly noted the "need to consolidate data on the impact of armed conflict on women and girls."' back |
| United Nations A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility 'Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change' Foreword: 'Particularly important is the Report's insistence that today's threats to our security are all interconnected. We can no longer afford to see problems such as terrorism, or civil wars or extreme poverty, in isolation. ... Development and security are inextricably linked. ... We ned to pay much closer attention to biological security. ... ' back |
| US Government NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security (April 14, 1950) TERMS OF REFERENCE The following report is submitted in response to the President's directive of January 31 which reads: That the President direct the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense to undertake a reexamination of our objectives in peace and war and of the effect of these objectives on our strategic plans, in the light of the probable fission bomb capability and possible thermonuclear bomb capability of the Soviet Union. back |
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