After the March 11, 2011, earthquake in Japan, there is overwhelming interest in worst-case analysis, including the critical excitation method. Nowadays, seismic design of structures performed by any seismic code is based on resisting previous natural earthquakes. Critical excitation methods in earthquake engineering, 2e, develops a new framework for modeling design earthquake loads for inelastic structures. The 2e, includes three new chapters covering the critical excitation problem for multi-component input ground motions, and that for elastic-plastic structures in a more direct way are incorporated and discussed in more depth. Finally, the problem of earthquake resilience of super high-rise buildings is discussed from broader viewpoints.