Resilience: A Stock-Taking. Key Characteristics and Implications for Human and Societal Security Policy

Resilience has become a buzzword in today’s policy agendas. Widely understood as ‘bouncing back’ after attacks, accidents and disruptions, the resilience concept has over time been complemented by a variety of new definitions. How should policy-makers understand the concept in formulating security policy? What are its core characteristics? And how do these characteristics relate to approaches that seek to foster resilience? This policy brief gives an overview of the different processes and properties associated with resilience, spelling out their potential implications for strategy and practice in the fields of human and societal security.