Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency Report

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in collaboration with the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute published a comprehensive handbook on key aspects of critical infrastructure security and resilience shared by all NATO allies. The report, Enabling NATO’s Collective Defense: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency, offers a conceptual framework of baseline knowledge so critical infrastructure owners and operators in all NATO countries share a common understanding of the threat environment and means for enhancing resilience.  

The handbook consists of three major sections. The first section includes four chapters that focus on what the authors mean by “critical” infrastructure and why and how it has been targeted. According to the authors, there has been an evolution of physical attacks, mainly by terrorists, to sophisticated cyberattacks by adversaries and to more complex hybrid means. The second section centers on giving readers an understanding of the critical “lifeline” infrastructure sectors, specifically, energy, transport, water, and communications. The last section provides readers with the tools necessary to deter and mitigate attacks against critical infrastructure as well as recommendations to build long-term security and resilience within host-nation critical infrastructure, thereby strengthening NATO’s collective defense. Members would likely be interested in chapter 8 of the report, “Water Sector Resilience and the Metropolitan Washington Case” by Steve Bieber, which details the fragility of water supplies and discusses how other sectors of critical infrastructure are highly dependent on water. Access the full report at the U.S. Army War College.