Terrorism - Lessons from Natural and Human Co-evolutionary Arms Races

The potential for violent, destructive and threatening behaviour against fellow humans seems to be inherent in our psychological and anatomical nature (the latter arguably evidenced by special adaptations of our fists, and fist-resistant faces (Morgan and Carrier, 2013; Carrier and Morgan, 2014)). This is true whether that behaviour concerns an argument over an insult, careless driving, domestic relations, religious beliefs and practices, or who governs Eastern Ukraine. The kinds of tactics and strategies classed, at times, as acts of terrorism, fall within this set. Fortunately equally inherent in us are cooperation, empathy and altruism, although in a conflict these can be selectively applied to one’s own side, even by terrorists.

We can look to our evolutionary origins to help understand, and hopefully to influence, what turns us – as individuals and groups – on and off violent conflict, who we target, over what moral/political causes and under what circumstances. This is the domain of beliefs, identities, ideologies and motivation. But we can also take another perspective, which is how conflicts tactically and strategically unfold, and how this process can be influenced for the differential benefit of the ‘good side’. The ‘how’ essentially concerns the process of adaptation, whereby organisms as individuals, groups or species change over some relevant timescale to become better fitted to survival, flourishing and reproduction in their habitual environment. Adaptation for potentially violent and destructive conflict such as carrying out terrorism or defending against it is the core concern of this chapter, although adaptation for cooperation and straightforward foraging with or without violence also play a part. The aim of the chapter as a whole is to explore the lessons for counter-terrorism from evolutionary studies of adaptation in both human and natural domains, with special focus on arms races. This is partly to come up with some practical suggestions at tactical and strategic levels; but partly also to foster a distinctive and, I will argue, promising way of thinking among policymakers, security services, engineers, planners and designers.

I show in particular how evolutionary processes apply to cultural (including technological) change, opening the knowledge-transfer process up to a range of natural, and human, co-evolutionary struggles. Following that, I show how such a widened perspective can apply to terrorism and counterterrorism in particular. Before concluding, I discuss a range of lessons for how to run terrorist arms races, drawing heavily on those most human of culturally-evolved adaptive processes, design, research, theory and evaluation.