Resilience is built before crises erupt

What remains functional when crisis strikes? And what must fundamentally change?

At a two-day workshop hosted at the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Dr. Oksana Huss from RC Trust engaged with representatives from federal and state authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, the Bundeswehr, and civil protection institutions. The workshop, initiated through the Joint Competence Center for Civil Protection (GeKoB), focused on strengthening societal resilience through cooperation in times of crisis

Drawing on three waves of empirical data collected among Ukrainian local governments (2021, 2022, 2024) as well as multiple case studies, Oksana Huss and her co-moderator Dr. Oleksandra Keudel examined resilience as both continuity and transformation.

The first day centered on resilience as continuity: Which institutional functions must remain operational even under extreme stress? Participants discussed core resilience dimensions and compared wartime resilience with disaster management in peacetime

The second day addressed resilience as change. Using case studies from Ukraine and a major power outage in Berlin, the group analyzed how purpose-oriented coordination among diverse actors can enhance crisis response. A key insight: resilience is not merely endurance. It requires adaptive governance, collaborative learning, and strategic coordination.

A recurring theme was the role of digital technologies. Innovations are frequently repurposed in crisis situations, and their effective use depends on trust, institutional flexibility, and communication – themes that closely connect to the research agenda of the Chair of Human Understanding of Algorithms and Machines led by Prof. Nils Köbis.

For RC Trust, this engagement illustrates how academic research can inform real-world security practice. By translating empirical findings into policy-relevant dialogue, the Center contributes to strengthening societal resilience within national and European security frameworks.

From March onward, Huss will continue her research on societal resilience as a Research Fellow at the NATO Defence College in Rome, comparing resilience models across NATO member states. This step further underlines RC Trust’s growing international profile in research at the intersection of governance, technology, and security.

In an era of overlapping crises, resilience is not an abstract ideal. It is a practical question of coordination, trust, and institutional capacity.