Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of nuclear war or other catastrophic event.
COG was developed by the British government during World War II to counter the threat of Luftwaffe bombing during the Battle of Britain. The need for continuity-of-government plans gained new urgency with nuclear proliferation.
Countries during the Cold War and afterwards developed such plans to avoid (or minimize) confusion and disorder in a power vacuum in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
Contents |
By country
Canada
Canada built numerous nuclear bunkers across the country, nicknamed "Diefenbunkers" in a play on the last name of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government which was in power at the time.
France
The Centre d'Opération des Forces Aériennes Stratégiques (COFAS) is a hardened command centre for French nuclear forces in Taverny, Val d'Oise. The alternate national command center is located at Mont Verdun near Lyon.
The hardened headquarters of Force Océanique Stratégique (FOST), France's nuclear SSBN fleet, is at Houilles, Yvelines.
Norway
The Norwegian government operate a nuclear bunker called Sentralanlegget in Buskerud County. The bunker is meant to accommodate the Norwegian Royal Family and the government in case of a nuclear/military attack on the nation, and also function as a wartime headquarters. There is also a bunker beneath Høyblokka in downtown Oslo.
Sweden
During the Cold War the Klara skyddsrum (Klara bunker) was built underneath Stockholm. The bunker is designed to accommodate two thirds of the government and between 8000 to 12000 civilians in the case of a military attack on Stockholm.
It is built in two stories and have multiple entrances. During peace time parts of it is used as a garage.
United Kingdom
The primary British COG headquarters is at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall. An alternate national command center was previously maintained in a quarry complex (nicknamed Hawthorn) near Corsham, Wiltshire. The above-ground support facility is RAF Rudloe Manor.
Service command centres are Northwood for the Royal Navy Trident SSBN force, and RAF High Wycombe for the Royal Air Force.
United States
- Each facility is counterpart to its peacetime equivalent.
- Raven Rock Mountain Complex → The Pentagon (Department of Defense)
- Mount Weather → Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (Used temporarily for Members of Congress in Sept. 2001)
- Camp David → Executive Office of the President
- Unknown → United States Congress (The Greenbrier was to be used until 1992, when it was decommissioned)
- Cheyenne Mountain → North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
- United States Strategic Command Center (Offutt Air Force Base) → United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)
- Former site:
- National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (Mount Pony) → Department of Treasury/Federal Reserve (sold off in 1997 to the National Audiovisual Conservation Center)
- Project Greek Island (Greenbrier Bunker - Exposed in press and removed from service)
- Also, mobile systems are used for additional command and control.
- E-4, EC-135, and E-6 are all airborne command centers.
- Air Force One is the term for any USAF plane the President of the United States travels on. However, the term normally refers to a Boeing VC-25A the President normally uses. While the VC-25A is equipped with numerous systems to ensure its survival, in an emergency, it would be recommended that he use the National Airborne Operations Center, a Boeing E-4 specially built to serve as a survivable mobile command post. The Secretary of Defense may also use it, as a member of the National Command Authority. It is also possible that the President would authorize the Vice President to use it, depending on the circumstances.
- An E-6 Mercury, is USSTRATCOM's Airborne Command Post, designed to take over in case USSTRATCOM's headquarters is destroyed or incapable of communicating with strategic forces.
- NORAD owns and operates a Mobile Consolidated Command Center
See also
- Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Decapitation strike
- Disaster recovery
- Government in exile
- Shadow government
- Temporary capital
UK specific:
US specific:
- Continuity of Government Commission
- Continuity of Operations Plan
- Designated survivor
- National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
- Wartime Information Security Program
External links
- Washington Post article - Back to the Bunker
- CBS News Article - 'Shadow Government' News to Congress
- Video: COVER UP - Behind the Iran Contra Affair - Pt 3 specifically, also Pt 1 Pt 2
- Summary of Executive Powers
- Congressman DeFazio denied access to Continuity of Government fileses:Continuidad del gobierno
ms:Kesinambungan pemerintahan ja:政府存続計画 ro:Continuitate a guvernului
Related Content
Documents
- Perspectives Chart: Foreigners Come to Hawaii/Change and Continuity
- Unification Prompts
- Silly Stories
QA
- Did the Soviet government under Stalin represent a continuity with the policies of Lenin, or did it represent a disjuncture with Lenin's policies?
- What Derek Parfit view on Continuity of personal identity?
- How does the use of flashbacks establish a continuity in the play especially with reference to the Charles family?
- How did the aftermath of the war in Europe differ from the aftermath of the war in Japan?
- Discuss how Chinua Achebe uses setting to communicate the theme of continuity and change in his story "Dead Men's Path."
Criticism
- Contemporary Literary Criticism: Keneally, Thomas (Michael) - Marion Glastonbury
- Contemporary Literary Criticism: Malraux, (Georges-)André (Vol. 15) - T. Jefferson Kline
- Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism: Southern Literature of the Reconstruction - Thomas B. Alexander (essay date 1983)
- Short Story Criticism: Calvino, Italo - Julie Fenwick (essay date 1990)
