ABSTRACT
Fusion Centers are uniquely positioned, both organizationally and geographically, to provide the most timely and accurate information relating to the systems and individual features of critical infrastructure within their area of responsibility (AoR). Further, Fusion Centers have been conceptualized as the touch point for information sharing among and between state, local, and tribal governments, the federal government and the intelligence community writ large. One by-product of this collaboration is the ongoing consensusbuilding surrounding the evaluation of the most critical threats and most vulnerable critical infrastructure in a Center’s AoR, and ostensibly the most effective steps needed to harden its softest targets. This chapter will describe the logic behind why states need such a capability, how Fusion Centers came into existence and some of the most crucial partnerships and programs intended to increase Fusion Centers’ effectiveness with relation to their role in identifying and protecting the nation’s most critical assets.
