Managing Emergencies and Crisis provides future public administrators and policymakers with a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, socio-cultural, and political dimensions of natural and human-made disasters, as well as providing them with the tools needed for confronting the challenges of preparedness and response.--[book cover]

As the scale, frequency, and intensity of crises faced by the world have dramatically increased over the last decade, there is a critical need for a careful stocktaking on the knowledge of managing disasters. Managing Emergencies and Crises: Global Perspectives clearly and comprehensively explores the most important concepts of emergency and crisis management (such as mitigation, protection, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, vulnerability and risk assessment) and illustrates them with cases involving disasters and emergencies worldwide. Substantially revised, the Second Edition has been reorganized and includes two new and timely chapters on terrorism and emergency management and public health emergencies and crises. It also provides an emphasis on management and leadership and cross-sector governance from interdisciplinary and global perspectives

From floods to fires, tornadoes to terrorist attacks, governments must respond to a variety of crises and meet reasonable standards of performance. What accounts for governments’ effective responses to unfolding disasters? How should they organize and plan for significant emergencies? With fifteen adapted Kennedy School cases, students experience first-hand a series of large-scale emergencies and come away with a clear sense of the different types of disaster situations governments confront, with each type requiring different planning, resourcing, skill-building, leadership, and execution. Grappling with the details of flawed responses to the LA Riots or Hurricane Katrina, or with the success of the Incident Management System during the Pentagon fire on 9/11, students start to see the ways in which responders can improve capabilities and more adeptly navigate between technical or operational needs and political considerations.

More than 12 years have passed since the publication of the first edition of Crisis and Emergency Management. During that time numerous disasters—from 9/11 to massive earthquakes in Iran and China, to the giant Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Fukushima Tsunami and ensuing nuclear meltdown—have changed the way we manage catastrophic events. With contributions from leading experts, this second edition features 40 new chapters that address recent worldwide crises and what we have learned from emergency responses to them. See What’s New in the Second Edition: Up-to-date concepts, theories, and practices Analysis of recent disasters and their effect on emergency management Policy and managerial lessons Suggestions for capacity building in crisis and emergency management The book covers a wide range of international issues using critical, empirical, and quantitative analyses. It discusses various approaches to topics such as resolving political tension and terrorism issues, the potential use of biological weapons, and the role of public relations in crisis. The author offers insight into organizational and community resiliency development; a "surprise management" theory in practice for upgrading the knowledge and skills in managing crises and governing emergencies; and better and more effective organizational, political, social, and managerial coordination in the processes. He presents case studies that enhance and advance the future theory and practice of crisis and emergency management, while at the same time providing practical advice that can be put to use immediately. Managing crises and governing emergencies in such an age of challenges demands a different kind of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that were not available yesterday. This book gives you valuable information with applications at the macro, micro, organizational, and interorganizational levels, preparing you for emergency management in an increasingly globalized and uncertain world.

Including contributions from sixty international authors, this book examines emergency responses to environmental dangers such as chemical fires, hazardous material and oil spills, nuclear reactor accidents, and earthquakes, and crises in the environment, global public service, and politics. It covers a wide range of international issues and topics, using various analyses, including critical, descriptive, empirical, quantitative, and normative methods. The book discusses approaches to natural disasters, resolutions to cultural, religious, and political tensions, terrorism and the potential use of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, the role of crisis public relations, and more.

The successful management of emergencies and public health crises depends on adequate measures being implemented at all levels of the emergency chain of action, from policy makers to the general population. It starts with appropriate risk assessment, prevention, and mitigation and continues to prehospital and hospital care, recovery, and evaluation. All levels of action require well-thought out emergency management plans and routines based on established command and control, identified safety issues, functional communication, well-documented triage and treatment policies, and available logistics. All these characteristics are capabilities that should be developed and trained, particularly when diverse agencies are involved. In addition to institutional responses, a robust, community-based disaster response system can effectively mitigate and respond to all emergencies. A well-balanced response is largely dependent on local resources and regional responding agencies that all too often train and operate within “silos”, with an absence of interagency cooperation. The importance of this book issue is its commitment to all parts of emergency and public health crisis management from a multiagency perspective. It aims to discuss lessons learned and emerging risks, introduce new ideas about flexible surge capacity, and show the way it can practice multiagency collaboration.

Although now a growing and respectable research field, crisis management—as a formal area of study—is relatively young, having emerged since the 1980s following a succession of such calamities as the Bhopal gas leak, Chernobyl nuclear accident, Space Shuttle Challenger loss, and Exxon Valdez oil spill. Analysis of organizational failures that caused such events helped drive the emerging field of crisis management. Simultaneously, the world has experienced a number of devastating natural disasters: Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, etc. From such crises, both human-induced and natural, we have learned our modern, tightly interconnected and interdependent society is simply more vulnerable to disruption than in the past. This interconnectedness is made possible in part by crisis management and increases our reliance upon it. As such, crisis management is as beneficial and crucial today as information technology has become over the last few decades. Crisis is varied and unavoidable. While the examples highlighted above were extreme, we see crisis every day within organizations, governments, businesses and the economy. A true crisis differs from a "routine" emergency, such as a water pipe bursting in the kitchen. Per one definition, "it is associated with urgent, high-stakes challenges in which the outcomes can vary widely (and are very negative at one end of the spectrum) and will depend on the actions taken by those involved." Successfully engaging, dealing with, and working through a crisis requires an understanding of options and tools for individual and joint decision making. Our Encyclopedia of Crisis Management comprehensively overviews concepts and techniques for effectively assessing, analyzing, managing, and resolving crises, whether they be organizational, business, community, or political. From general theories and concepts exploring the meaning and causes of crisis to practical strategies and techniques relevant to crises of specific types, crisis management is thoroughly explored. Features & Benefits: A collection of 385 signed entries are organized in A-to-Z fashion in 2 volumes available in both print and electronic formats. Entries conclude with Cross-References and Further Readings to guide students to in-depth resources. Selected entries feature boxed case studies, providing students with "lessons learned" in how various crises were successfully or unsuccessfully managed and why. Although organized A-to-Z, a thematic "Reader's Guide" in the front matter groups related entries by broad areas (e.g., Agencies & Organizations, Theories & Techniques, Economic Crises, etc.). Also in the front matter, a Chronology provides students with historical perspective on the development of crisis management as a discrete field of study. The work concludes with a comprehensive Index, which—in the electronic version—combines with the Reader's Guide and Cross-References to provide thorough search-and-browse capabilities. A template for an "All-Hazards Preparedness Plan" is provided the backmatter; the electronic version of this allows students to explore customized response plans for crises of various sorts. Appendices also include a Resource Guide to classic books, journals, and internet resources in the field, a Glossary, and a vetted list of crisis management-related degree programs, crisis management conferences, etc.