Vulnerabilities of Social Structures - The Black Vault

7. Experience gained from working with "societal criteria" andfrom developing new kinds of counter.neasure systems to deal withthe social effects of nuclear attack may be applied to a radically newconception of civil defense in a society not under external attack. Associety becomes structrally more complex and interdependent, itmay be vulnerable to disasters which occur because of failures in thecomplex networks which comprise the social system. Such "failures"range from massive physical failures - - - as in the Northeast PowerFailure of November, 1965 - - - to the institutional weaknesses whichlead to racial insurrection or general political instability. It is notinconceivable that in the future, the primary emergency operationsfunctions of civil defense agencies will be in controlling and managingsuch "systemic" failures. The necessity to think, plan, build,and operate in the society-wide analytic framework imposed by consideringthe social effects of nuclear war may create the analyticand practical basis for understanding this potential new basic civildefense mission. The similarities between responding to nuclearattack and responding to new categories of "systemic disaster"should receive intensive study.With these seven statements, the work of the social scientist ends, andthe work of the policy-maker, systems-designer, and operating official begins.It is the job of these individuals to decide whether policy and action will, in fact,be guided by these statements, and whether, in fact, these statements will be reflectedin the goals of government.S. D. Vestermark, Jr.McLean, VirginiaMarch, 1967xxiiiFf