Community defense is the practice of protecting people, spaces, and shared infrastructure against violence, abandonment, displacement, or sabotage during disaster and its aftermath [@caguas2017; @nhmad2019; @jbgcrr2019].
Within emergent disaster response, the term matters because survival is not only a matter of receiving supplies. Communities may also need to defend occupied buildings, shared infrastructure, public presence, medical aid, or neighborhood capacity against hostile institutions and armed reaction. The Caguas material and MADR co-conspirator pages make that dimension explicit [@caguas2017; @nhmad2019].
Community defense is therefore a current within emergent disaster response that joins care, logistics, and protection rather than treating them as separate spheres.
Related terms
- Autonomous Direct Action - one broader action form that community defense can take
- Centros de Apoyo Mutuo in Post-Maria Puerto Rico - a case where defense of space became part of disaster response
- Collective Liberation - the wider political orientation that often frames defense work