College Research Associate Matthijs Maas has led a submission of Evidence to the UK Cabinet Office, providing input on the UK’s proposed National Resilience Strategy. The submission was prepared by an interdisciplinary team of risk experts, on behalf of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), and provides concrete responses to the Government’s questions about how to improve national resilience.
The team’s response follows the six broad thematic areas of the National Resilience Strategy (Risk and Resilience, Responsibilities and Accountability, Partnerships, Community, Investment, and Resilience in an Interconnected World). It highlights both cross-cutting themes in ensuring resilience to extreme risks, as well as specific recommendations for actionable policies in key risk domains such as in biological risks, climate risk, or risks deriving from emerging technologies within critical national infrastructure and defence systems, such as artificial intelligence.
Matthijs’ team argues that more work can and should be done to categorize and identify catastrophic, and existential risks; emphasises the importance of taking a long-term perspective on mitigating and responding to the challenges these pose; and encourages the development of a more comprehensive strategy, as these risks are all intertwined in an interconnected and complex environment.
The full report can be accessed here.
