Our communities and critical infrastructure are facing security and safety risks that are constantly evolving, and the protections needed to secure this infrastructure must catch up. Currently, technological innovation outpaces security standards. Natural disasters ripple across regions and industries. Supply chains strain under geopolitical tension. Nation-state actors, homegrown extremists, and non-state actors probe both cyber and physical systems.
In this environment, coordination among the owners and operators of critical infrastructure—and between the public and private sectors–is not optional. It is critical for national security. And that coordination must increasingly be cross-sector, not confined within industry silos.
Yet at the very moment when integrated collaboration is most critical, the connective tissue of partnership shows signs of strain.
In March 2025, DHS canceled the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC), the principal mechanism through which structured dialogue occurred between government and infrastructure operators and across multiple sectors. Without this structure, sector owners and operators and government alike are unable to reap the full benefits of public-private coordination. While waiting for a permanent solution, reliance on short-term extensions of liability protections under the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 has introduced uncertainty into information sharing. Additionally, workforce reductions and reprioritization at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) add pressure to the agency charged with leading national risk reduction across 16 critical infrastructure sectors and to all agencies acting as Sector Risk Management Agencies. These developments underscore a larger truth: infrastructure protection depends on sustained, trust-based, cross-sector public–private partnership that can endure administrative priorities and budget cycles. This kind of partnership requires deliberate investment.
Why Cross-Sector Collaboration Matters More Than Ever
Modern infrastructure is not a collection of independent verticals. It is an ecosystem, a spiderweb of interconnectivity where the nation relies on healthcare, emergency services, defense, and food and agriculture — which in turn depends on energy, communications, water, transportation, and chemical production — which further requires digital controls, and manufacturing, and the spiderweb weaves back and forth. A disruption in one sector can cascade quickly into others.
Further, a ransomware attack on a logistics provider can delay fuel deliveries. A cyber intrusion at a water utility can disrupt manufacturing. A natural disaster affecting one region’s grid can create telecommunications outages hundreds of miles away.
When risks are interconnected, defenses must be as well. Cross-sector partnership allows stakeholders to map interdependencies before a crisis exposes them, identify shared vulnerabilities in widely used technologies and supply chains, coordinate contingency planning to prevent cascading failures, test how disruptions in one sector affect others, and align response protocols so actions in one domain do not unintentionally worsen conditions in another.
Without cross-sector collaboration, each industry optimizes for its own continuity. With proper coordination, the nation optimizes for systemic resilience.
What Public–Private Partnership Actually Delivers
When it comes to national security, the importance of public-private partnerships and communication cannot be overstated. Public–private collaboration delivers tangible advantages—especially when it spans sectors.
Government brings national-level intelligence, political insight, and law enforcement authorities. Industry brings operational data, technical expertise, and immediate visibility into anomalies. When those insights are shared not only within sectors but across them, patterns emerge more readily. A tactic observed in the energy sector may surface days later in telecommunications. A supply chain disruption affecting transportation may foreshadow impacts in healthcare. An attacker who has infiltrated one sector can find inroads to another. Cross-sector information flow shortens the gap between isolated signal and systemic understanding, creating best practices and solutions that can permeate across sectors just as quickly as the bad actors. Further, open and transparent communication between public and private sectors can increase our collective ability to combat terrorists, nation state actors, and criminals seeking to harm our national and economic security by informing long term solutions, policies, and standards.
It is often said that the first time you meet your emergency response professionals shouldn’t be during an emergency. The same is true for cross-sector partners providing interdependent services. When relationships exist across industries and agencies before an incident, response becomes coordinated rather than fragmented. Established lines of communication allow energy providers, financial institutions, logistics companies, and government agencies to synchronize actions. Instead of reacting, they respond collectively—minimizing cascading disruption. In moments of crisis, trust built over years enables rapid mobilization.
Some challenges—supply chain transparency, insider risk, emerging technology dependencies—cannot be solved within a single industry. They require structured, cross-sector dialogue, planning, and execution. Bringing together operators from multiple domains with government stakeholders creates the space to address these ‘wicked’ problems holistically. It enables practical solutions grounded in shared experience rather than theoretical modeling or stove-piped ideals.
Government benefits from understanding how a proposed policy in one sector may affect others. Industry benefits from clearer, more harmonized regulatory and policy expectations. Cross-sector forums allow operators to identify overlaps and inconsistencies before they become operational burdens. The result is more efficient compliance, reduced duplication, and stronger alignment between national security objectives and operational reality.
The Limits of a Government-Only Model
‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help’ may be a common laugh line, but over the last decade, public-private collaboration in the security realm had become a reality. CISA led the way by treating critical infrastructure stakeholders as true partners in protecting our national security and economy. But government capacity is not unlimited.
A partnership architecture that depends solely on government structures risks becoming brittle—and, as we’ve seen, is subject to shifting resources, policy priorities, staffing/operational capacity, and often comes with bureaucratic red tape
That reality calls for a more distributed model—one in which cross-sector, industry-driven networks complement federal capabilities. Such mechanisms can sustain relationships across political cycles, translate federal guidance into operational practice, and elevate cross-sector challenges and priorities back into national conversations.
This model does not replace government. It reinforces it, serving as a force multiplier and trusted partner to government—expanding reach, preserving institutional memory, and ensuring that collaboration remains continuous rather than episodic.
Reaffirming a Cross-Sector Compact
If resilience is the goal, partnership must be institutional, cross-sector, and enduring.
Most of America’s critical infrastructure is privately owned and operated. That reality is not a weakness—it is an opportunity. Industry brings agility, innovation, and operational expertise. Government brings authorities, intelligence, and national coordination. Cross-sector collaboration binds those strengths into a cohesive defense.
Our adversaries coordinate across borders and industries. Disasters cascade across interconnected systems. Supply chains link continents and sectors.
Resilience must be equally integrated.
Public–private partnership—especially when it bridges sectors rather than reinforces silos—is not a slogan. It is the mechanism by which awareness becomes action, fragmentation becomes coordination, and vulnerability becomes collective strength.
Strengthening and expanding that cross-sector capability—and taking ownership responsibility for its success–may be one of the most consequential national security investments that owners of critical infrastructure can make. The Center for Cross-Sector Coordination (CXC), an emerging organization coordinating with critical infrastructure owners and operators, government, sector associations, and strategic partners, has stepped in to tackle this challenge. Set to launch in early April, the Center is the next evolution of national resilience – a new kind of partnership that is industry-led, cross-sector, and focused on addressing these critical challenges.
