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May 7, 2020
Peter Bergen and Daniel Rothenberg wrote an opinion piece for CNN discussing the implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the structural changes the pandemic will spur in the future.
We all have a general sense of what "national security" means and what threatens it. But we need to rethink and update the term, now that our way of life is facing a dangerous threat, not from a foreign army, spy network or terrorist organization, but from a microscopic virus that has, quite suddenly, changed everything.
The American diplomat George Kennan, in 1948, defined national security as "the continued ability of the country to pursue the development of its internal life without serious interference, or threat of interference, from foreign powers."
Today, we need to adjust this definition, with national security as "the continued ability of the country to pursue the development of its internal life without serious interference, or threat of interference, from foreign powers or other diverse threats," a formulation that covers the challenges posed by non-state actors, such as al Qaeda's attack on 9/11-- and the coronavirus today.