ABSTRACT
Assuring that the critical foundations of our communities, states, regions, and nations can navigate twenty-first-century risks is vital to the safety and prosperity of citizens worldwide. While developed nations have already started to take steps toward building resilience, developing and emerging economies are also beginning to catch up. For example, in the United States, Presidential Policy Directive 21 recognizes this imperative and directs agencies across the U.S. government to take steps that will enhance infrastructure resilience. However, devastating consequences of recent disasters across the globe have demonstrated that communities and nations (even developed ones) are still far from resilient. Policy measures for resilience are necessary to both drive, and work in tandem, with engineering and scientific approaches. Our ability to visualize and understand resilience needs to inform preparedness policies for foreseeable disasters (even when they are unprecedented), especially in the context of interconnected infrastructures and institutions. Financial instruments that can address fundamental changes in the nature of hazards and disasters, as well as governance structures that can both recognize and transcend jurisdictional, political, functional, and organizational boundaries, are necessary and urgent. This chapter discusses various impediments and opportunities for critical infrastructure resilience policies.
