7. Resilience History and Focus in the USA

The USA operates and maintains a vast array of critical infrastructure (CI), from energy and water systems to transportation systems and communication nodes. Operating and maintaining this CI is a complex challenge, particularly as infrastructure continues to age and overall investments continue to decline. It is within this context that resilience is discussed. The roots of resilience in the USA go back for decades with a focus on disaster mitigation of infrastructure damage, developing plans and procedures, assessing vulnerabilities, hardening systems, building in redundancies, etc.; as well as developing standards, policies, and technologies for this purpose. The USA has a history of responding well in times of crisis, including national mobilization during the World War II and steps taken following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The US formally recognized resilience in national doctrine with the issuance of the 2010 National Security Strategy, which states that we must enhance our resilience—that is, our ability to adapt to changing conditions and prepare for, withstand, and rapidly recover from disruption (Obama in National security strategy of the United States, The White House, Washington, DC, 2010). Resilience policy has existed in various forms in other domains; however, this official declaration of strategy broadened the terminology to national security and helped reframe the focus. The US resilience focus is moving from a myopic physical security posture to a holistic resilience framework. Several key programs are increasing US CI resilience.