The Political Rationales for Civil Defence

Success in implementing civil defence programmes takes two forms: technical and political. Technical success is an effective assembling of the requisite physical plant to make civil defence viable and helpful in reducing the consequences of disaster or attack. Discussed in Chapter 2, this is the aspect of civil defence concerned with constructing well-engineered shelters for populations, government and industry and with formulating plans for the relocation of the civilian population. The emphasis in this chapter is on the determination of political success. What are the factors, apart from those of a technical nature, which make some states more able to implement a civil defence programme? Technical ‘success’ in civil defence is difficult to measure since, at least in relation to nuclear weapons, there is little reliable data by which to assess it. Political success, however, may be judged independently from the actual experience of nuclear attack. Political success concerns the ability to plan for civil defence: to promote it, pay for it and implement it. While political success cannot be treated separately from perceptions about technical success, there are a variety of non-technical factors that greatly enhance both the viability and the salience of civil defence.