Resilience

RUSI's work on national resilience focuses on five interconnected areas.

Governance and Crisis Management

Effective resilience depends on robust institutions, clear leadership and coordinated decision-making before, during and after crises. Our research examines how governments organise for resilience, strengthen emergency preparedness and improve coordination across national, regional and local authorities.

This includes:

• National resilience policy and governance;
• Crisis management and emergency decision-making;
• Civil preparedness and contingency planning
• Cross-government coordination and resilience exercises.

Critical National Infrastructure

Critical infrastructure underpins economic prosperity, national security and everyday life. As infrastructure becomes increasingly interconnected and exposed to both physical and digital threats, protecting essential services is a growing strategic priority.

Our research covers:

• Emergency services, health and public safety;
• Energy, water, transport and telecommunications resilience;
• Cyber and physical security of critical infrastructure;
• Protection of digital networks and undersea infrastructure;
• Food security and essential supply systems.

Economic and Technological Resilience

Economic strength and technological advantage are fundamental to national resilience. RUSI examines how governments and industry can reduce strategic vulnerabilities while strengthening the capacity to respond to future crises.

Research areas include:

• Secure and resilient supply chains;
• Defence industrial capacity and mobilisation;
• Economic security and protection against coercion;
• Critical technologies and strategic dependencies;
• Climate and environmental risks to economic resilience.

Military Resilience

Military resilience extends beyond force structure and readiness to encompass the ability to sustain operations during prolonged periods of competition or conflict. It also considers how military capability interacts with wider national resilience.

Our work explores:

• Defence readiness and sustainability;
• Physical defence and protection of the UK;
• Civil–military cooperation;
• Reserve forces and mobilisation;
• Planning for concurrent and complex crises.

Societal Resilience

Resilient societies are better equipped to withstand disruption, recover from crises and resist efforts to undermine public confidence and democratic institutions.

RUSI's research examines:

• Social cohesion and community resilience;
• Public preparedness and risk awareness;
• Information integrity and resilience against disinformation;
• Psychological resilience during crises;
• Societal responses to climate, health and security risks.

The UK's security increasingly depends on the resilience of its institutions, infrastructure, economy and society, as much as on its conventional military capabilities. Adversaries seek to exploit vulnerabilities across these domains through cyber attacks, sabotage, economic coercion, information operations and other forms of hostile activity that fall below the threshold of war.

Building resilience requires sustained investment, effective governance and collaboration across government, industry and society. Through multidisciplinary research and engagement with policymakers, practitioners and international partners, RUSI helps shape the policies and capabilities needed to strengthen national resilience in the UK and among its allies.