Security

Introduction

The concept of resilience is evolving in reflection of various changes in climate, socio-economy, technology, and other factors. Each country attempts to strengthen its resilience to disasters according to its local condition.

Introduction

The terrorist attack at Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016 (22/3), when terrorists committed a suicide bombing, caused 12 deaths and injured nearly 100 people. Police officers (PO) rushed to the scene within minutes, searching for survivors, evacuating victims, guarding the perimeter of the disaster site and eventually seeking for bodies and body parts.

Introduction

Resilience is one of those newly coined concepts that is witnessing an exponential increase in use across a wide range of areas and international organizations. The ubiquity of the concept is at once promising as it focuses on the causal effect of a host of factors and their interlinkages but is also exposed to the danger of being overused—and thus misused—without the development of its solid foundation and conceptual framework.

Democracy itself is under assault from foreign governments and internal threats, such that democratic institutions may not flourish unless social data science puts our existing knowledge and theories about politics, public opinion, and political communication to work. These threats are current and urgent, and, if not understood and addressed in an agile manner, will further undermine European democracies.[1]

The 2020 Security Jam, which took place in May, focused on non-traditional challenges. Interestingly, the solutions to these non-traditional challenges are also non-traditional. Many different innovative solutions were put forward.[1] One of the clearest messages to arise from the Jam was the need to develop systems, processes, and institutions to predict and prepare for future challenges.

Introduction

There is widespread agreement among scientists that one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, the plague or black death, originated in China and spread along the old silk road to Europe.[1] It demonstrated a pattern that is as old as human history: when people and goods travel, so do bacteria and viruses.