If you can't be secure, be resilient

Abstract

Introduction We begin our discussion of security and resilience by offering a ‘health warning’: over the following pages the reader will encounter more questions than answers. Our aim within this chapter is not to tell the reader what to think, but to help identify issues for consideration when developing security capabilities. We acknowledge that the concepts of security and resilience are both contested (Buzan, 1991; Walklate et al, 2014). We also accept that neither security nor resilience are fixed attributes of a society. They are ‘multilayered, multifaceted’ (Walklate et al, 2014), in variable evidence over time, and rarely the sole responsibility of any one entity.