Military Installation Resilience: What Does It Mean?

Within DOD, a general interpretation of resilience may be applied to, and scoped for, specific defense matters. This can be observed in various DOD and military service (hereinafter "service") policy, doctrine, guidance, and official websites. For example, concerning the topic of "Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience" (DOD Directive 4715.21), DOD has defined resilience as the "ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions." This definition is associated explicitly with the impacts of climate change and applies to all aspects of DOD (e.g., installations; personnel; operations; transportation; supply chains; research, development, testing, and evaluation). In another example, the Army defines resilience for the Army Recovery Care Program - a program that serves wounded, ill, and injured soldiers - as "the mental, physical, emotional and behavioral ability to face and cope with adversity, adapt to change, recover, learn and grow from setbacks." These examples show the differences in how resilience can be defined within DOD. To date, DOD has not provided a singular definition for resilience in its official Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, despite a previous proposal to do so.