The Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy Volume 1, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 5

Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy • Volume 1, Number 1 • Spring/Summer 2020 Editor’s Letter Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy (JCIP). The publication’s launch coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic, an event that illustrates the fundamental need to ensure the resilience of critical infrastructure systems and the communities that they serve. Each article in this issue has a direct or indirect bearing on the pandemic, grappling with its consequences, understanding supply chain dynamics and build- ing infrastructure resilience to future disasters. While resilience may be conceived in different ways, the National Academies’ definition—“the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events”— resonates deeply during this period of international challenge. 1 Critical infrastructure (CI) refers to the national sectors identified by US Presidential Policy Directive and cross-sector CI functions defined by the US De- partment of Homeland Security. 2,3 Each sector is considered so vital that its in- capacitation would have a debilitating effect on the country’s security, economic viability, public health and safety or other devastating outcomes. They include: Healthcare and Public Health, Energy and Power, Information and Cyber-Tech- nology, Transportation Systems, Communications, Financial Services, Critical Manufacturing, Emergency Services, Food and Agriculture, Water and Wastewa- ter Systems, Nuclear Reactors, Chemical Facilities, Dams, Government Facilities, the Defense Industrial Base and Commercial Facilities. CI is comprised of systems and systems of systems that are highly complex, interconnected and sometimes unplanned—and they are evolving at exponential rates. Impairment in one sector can cascade into multiple sector shutdowns lead- ing to serious societal consequences. Each sector encompasses an array of physi- cal assets, organizations and people as well as important cyberspace components. These factors can present unforeseen built-in vulnerabilities, and accidents are likely to be experienced as systems become more complex, opaque and interactive. The premises underlying America’s national security have also profound- ly changed since September 11, 2001. Substantial advances to protect the Nation have been made by the Department of Homeland Security and the US Intelligence Community. Among existing and emergent threats, however, none are more chal- lenging than changes in the security environment for CI. Many threats are attrib- 1 2 3 Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative (Washington DC: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2012) Presidential Policy Directive 21: Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience (Washington DC: The White House, Feb 12, 2013) National Critical Functions (Washington DC: US Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecuri- ty and Infrastructure Security Agency, April 30, 2019) 1 doi: 10.18278/jcip.1.1.1