The Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, works to advance resilience as a core tenet of US and allied national security policy and practice.

Resilience — the ability of individuals, communities, or systems to withstand and recover from shocks — is a national security imperative in an increasingly contested world. To help the United States and its allies better prepare for and succeed amid 21st century challenges, the Initiative examines sources of, and develops strategies for enhancing, resilience across key pillars of individual, community, and systemic resilience.

Pillars of work

Individual Resilience

Tasked with solving the world’s toughest global security challenges, national security professionals – from soldiers, to diplomats, to foreign correspondents – undertake significant risks to fulfill their duties to country and cause. The Initiative seeks to showcase powerful stories of individual resilience in the national security field, study sources of personal and professional resilience, and develop strategies for enhancing the resilience of national security personnel across key US and allied national security institutions.

Collective Resilience

As an array of traditional and non-traditional threats shape the 21st century security landscape, the US and its allies must bolster their resources and readiness to confront emerging challenges more effectively. The Initiative works to advance strategies for strengthening community, systemic, and global resilience across key policy domains integral to national security, such as critical infrastructure; societal resilience to terrorist attacks; climate security and food systems resilience; cybersecurity resilience; mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans, military, and members of the national security community, and more.

Events

Resilience resources

Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Bookshelf

The Resilience Bookshelf presents a prescient collection of modern works bound by a central theme of national security resilience. Spanning war and conflict, extremism, technological change, natural disasters, climate security, and more, the Bookshelf offers enduring lessons for enhancing individual, community, and systemic resilience.

Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Playlist

Music has long served as a tool for bolstering resilience. In individuals, it can help forge identity, heal stress and trauma, and inspire growth. In societies, it can foster community, bridge cultures, and even aid diplomacy. The Resilience Playlist aims to empower listeners from the national security community and beyond to embrace a spirit of resilience.

Meet our team

Founder

Team