Policymaking to support resilience in democratic countries

This paper seeks to outline concrete ways in which national security policymakers can enhance resilience. The concept of resilience has gained prominence in academic and policymaking circles since Holling introduced it in the 1970s, as it offers a new way of thinking about systems that allows for dynamism and unpredictability. It seeks to provide insights into a range of approaches to resilience at different levels (e.g. government, Defence, individual), which are followed by different countries facing varying types of threats.

The illustrative examples above demonstrate the types of measures that national security policymakers can implement to enhance a nation’s resilience. Some of these threats can be predicted or foreseen. Futures research can play a key role in the robust identification of potential threats, informing strategic long-term thinking, and helping policymakers to adopt appropriate threat-specific resilience policies