Excerpt:
In October 2003, the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Oral History Project launched Phase One of its three-part study of the evolution of CIP in the United States. The first phase will document the history of critical infrastructure protection policy from its roots up to the unveiling of Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD 63) in 1998. The two subsequent phases will look at later CIP developments, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. At the heart of all three phases of the project will be a series of face-to-face and telephone sessions with key CIP policymakers and those responsible for implementing and assessing critical infrastructure initiatives and programs. At the same time, we're eager to collect information and insights from visitors to our web site. We hope you'll take time to contribute to the historical record yourself by completing our online survey. The form is easy to fill out and will require only a few minutes of your time.
Annotation:
This multi-faceted project documents the history of the nation's efforts to protect what has come to be called critical infrastructure -- the systems and structures that are vital to the smooth and safe functioning of our economy, society, and way of life. Examples of critical infrastructure include the country’s electrical grid, banking network, distribution pipelines, transportation corridors, and emergency response systems, among other things. Many of these systems are interdependent and rely on computer technology to operate.
A major focus of the CIP Oral History and Digital Archive Project is an ongoing interview program centered on the evolution of critical infrastructure protection -- or CIP -- during the 1980s and 1990s, up to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security in November 2002. Many of our interviewees are federal policymakers who have helped to shape and guide the CIP debate at the highest levels of government. You’ll find summaries of their interview transcripts in the Archive section.
In addition to gathering first-hand insights into recent CIP history, the project also looks at the broad historical context of CIP in the United States during the last three centuries. The Overview section sketches out some of the major issues in CIP, supplemented by a Timeline offering a detailed overview of key events and developments in CIP history. The Archive section provides easy access to a collection of materials selected for their relevance to the "big picture" of CIP. The Bibliography section gives suggestions for additional background reading available from other sources.
