Gitanjali Adlakha-Hutcheon – författare

This 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 pathways to counter such disruptions. 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; they are less prevalent in defence, even less so within the realm of security. For the last 10 years, there has been talk of disruptive technologies and even adoption of terms such as emerging and disruptive technologies by the largest military alliance—NATO, yet the means to assess these remain elusive. It offers researchers opportunities to assess different types of disruptions, ideate and innovate on scientific grounds to counter disruptions, thereby bolstering the defence and security community’s ability to make decisions better.

What does it take to disrupt security? How does one disrupt the invisibility of insecurity? How does one make the invisible factors that define and impact security visible?

For a start, by giving voice to the unheard and the marginalized, engaging non-traditional understandings of security that might bring to light the cracks in our current security infrastructure and expose the insecurities that are hidden in plain sight. These voices include generational, geographic, cultural, ethnic, and gender-based perspectives of insecurity which are ignored, or simply cannot be heard, by traditional notions of security. Presently there is a lack of understanding of the language of nuanced hate being whispered from the ground that inform civil discord. These call for new intrastate actions that need to be taken to make communities safer and building layers of protective resilience into the continuing existence of the state. Unresolved grievances lay the foundation for insecurity and instability for the future at a time when states need cohesiveness more than ever and there are significant invisible insecurities, external to the state, that need to be revealed. The tapestry of interrelationships that enable security within a state requires equity, access, and agency among communities. If we are to achieve this, we must learn to see the invisible, listen to the unheard, and move beyond our static conceptions of security. In so doing we build more resilient societies in the face of a dynamic threat environment and ensure the peaceful continued existence of states.

This book is a sounding board for positive disruption, a source for alternative theories, tools, and models to aid mitigation of the whispered threats and the soft violence which accompanies chauvinism of any one way of being. In this edited book the multiplicity of factors that impact security is explored through new lenses to glean insights, such that we are better equipped to prevent harm and protect our security.