// Research

What is Resilience?

In the context of evolving challenges, Armenia is now faced with vulnerabilities for which its state and non-state institutions are not prepared to address efficiently such as hybrid threats (information warfare, psychological warfare, lawfare, cognitive warfare), as well as populism, fake news, disinformation campaigns, and other conventional and non-conventional sources of threats. INFORS Armenia, thus, underlines the importance of resilience in countering these threats and achieving Armenia’s national and strategic interests and foreign policy objectives. Although used in different areas such as psychology, economy, industry, in International Relations resilience was defined in different terms by various institutions, but the common ground resides in acknowledging resilience as ability and preparedness to address security challenges and the level the recovery and adaptation after a cataclysm. Moreover, resilience can be strengthened by preparing the population for better coping with future disasters and crises.

Many international organizations defined Resilience as “The ability to withstand, recover from, and reorganize in response to crisis so that all members of society may thrive and move forward.”

Another explanation of Resilience is “The capacity of a system to experience shocks while retaining essentially the same function, structure, feedbacks, and therefore identity.” Key words for Resilience are Adaptability and Transformability to evolving geostrategic dynamics, security threats, as well as social, political and institutional domestic challenges. This approach focuses less on planning and controlling and more on preparing the population for better coping with adversities.