# The Importance of 

# International Disaster Management Studies

# in the Field of Emergency Management

**by Damon Coppola, MEM Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management**

**Abstract:**

Traditionally, the myriad courses offered by FEMA's Emergency Management
Institute have focused solely on the study and practice of emergency
management as they pertain to municipalities within the United States.
Only a small number of these courses make even a glancing reference to
the problem of how disasters are managed elsewhere in the world. As a
result, curricula tend to be limited to the development and practice of
the emergency management discipline at the domestic level. This paper
argues that such a bias should be abandoned so that students and
practitioners in the United States may benefit from the rest of the
world's experience in emergency and disaster management. This knowledge
is vital for five reasons: 1) The United States' emergency management
system is imperfect, 2) The United States is moving towards a 'Third
World' system, 3) Climate change equals bigger, stronger, and more
numerous disasters, 4) Climate change means global instability, and 5)
The expanding discipline demands the inclusion of international disaster
management studies.

# Introduction

For the first time in three years, the topic of international disaster
management will not be featured on the agenda of the FEMA Emergency
Management Institute Higher Education Conference. It's absence leaves a
major gap in the comprehensive study and understanding of emergency
management. It's exclusion from the conference (and likewise in most
emergency management curricula at university programs throughout the
United States) is primarily a product of the deficiency of educators and
resources currently focusing on the topic. Both of these shortfalls,
which together contribute to the flawed popular belief that the
international experience has little to offer American emergency
managers, can and should be corrected within the academic community.

# 

# What is International Disaster Management?

Two separate but interrelated concepts are represented by the term
'international disaster management' in academics, namely:

1.  The study of disaster management in scenarios where the capacity of
    a single nation's response mechanisms are overwhelmed

2.  The study of the diverse emergency and disaster management systems
    and structures that exist throughout the world

Not one field of study within the various emergency management programs
administered by colleges, universities, and other institutions
throughout the United States should consider the international
experience irrelevant, as the following five arguments will demonstrate.

Argument 1: The United States' emergency management system is imperfect

Most would agree that the US emergency management system is the most
advanced and well funded in the world. The equipment utilized, the
training applied, and the dedication of its many practitioners to
exercise and testing, are unequalled. Despite all of these achievements
failures occur with regularity, thus proving in cruel fashion that we as
a nation do not yet possess all of the answers to emergency management's
problems.

When international disaster management is broached, what typically come
to mind are the frail emergency management systems found in the
developing world, rife with insufficient funding, poor training,
corruption, and other obstacles. However, there are a great number of
highly successful emergency management systems found in the many
industrialized nations of the world, and a handful in the developing
world, that we stand to learn from considerably. Their lessons become
our lessons only when we pay attention. For example:

-   **The Netherlands**: After fighting the encroachment of the North
    Sea for over 800 years, the Dutch have developed a flood control
    system unrivaled by any other nation. US planners often measure
    success in terms of resisting 100-year floods (as is currently
    employed in New Orleans) or 500-year floods. In the Netherlands,
    flood control systems are being updated to increase protection to
    100,000-year flood events from the present 10,000-year flood
    defenses in place.

-   **Japan**: The Japanese have been suffering from the effects of
    tsunamis for over a thousand years. Almost 200 major events have
    been recorded in the last 1300 years alone, or an average of one
    event per 6.7 years. The result of this experience is a remarkably
    diverse tsunami management system that combines widespread public
    education, advanced warning systems, and extensive mitigation
    countermeasures.

-   **Israel**: As a result of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the
    government of Israel has developed highly advanced systems of threat
    monitoring, detection, and prevention, and has improved their
    systems for dealing with the consequences when events actually
    occur. Following the September 11^th^ terrorist attacks, officials
    from the Department of Homeland Security, and from many State and
    local government agencies, met with officials from the Government of
    Israel to learn from their experiences related to terrorism
    (including anti-missile technology on commercial airliners, airline
    passenger security, monitoring of terrorist groups, and attack scene
    security.)

-   **Australia and New Zealand**: The hazards risk management
    methodology developed by the national emergency management agencies
    of Australia and New Zealand are the most comprehensive in the
    world. They were one of the primary resources used in the
    development of FEMA's approach of the same topic when guidance was
    developed for use by towns and cities throughout the United States.

-   **India**: With the help of the British colonialists, the Indian
    government solved a centuries-old problem of drought and famine.
    Recognizing that the nation was never without sufficient resources,
    and that their only deficiency was in the movement of those
    resources to those in need, they developed the extensive railway
    system that reaches virtually ever region of the country. Since its
    initiation, there has not been a single drought-related famine in
    India. Many researchers have theorized that the most significant
    failure in the response to Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in
    2005 was a breakdown in the systems used to transport needed
    supplies to disaster-affected zones.

# Argument 2: The United States is moving towards a 'Third World' system

Traditionally, disaster response in the developing world (often referred
to as the 'Third World') has revolved around the recognition that
central governments are unable to manage all of the consequences of
'mega-disasters'. These governments have compensated by forming pre- and
post-disaster cooperative agreements and other arrangements with
nongovernmental, nonprofit, and private organizations and businesses,
who together provide the various components of the response that the
beleaguered government is unable to manage on their own. Included in
these services are mass care, transportation, re-supply, and case
management, among others. These organizations are good at what they do,
and they do it regularly, leaving them much more prepared and more able
to deliver when called upon to do so.

The insinuation that the US might be moving towards a 'Third-World'
system evokes negative reactions -- in response to assumptions that the
speaker is claiming that the US is regressing. However, the opposite may
in fact be true -- in a sense the shift is a 'correction' to assumptions
that may have been the basis of flawed emergency management practices -
as were evidenced in the response to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf
Coast. Following Katrina, many of the shortfalls of the government
response systems in the United States were exposed. Private and
non-profit organizations stepped in to fill existing gaps, including
businesses like Chevron and Walmart, international nonprofit
organizations like Save the Children, local organizations like the Baton
Rouge Community Foundation, and religious organizations like Southern
Baptist Disaster Relief.

When disasters occur in the developing world, much of the funding to
support response and recovery is passed by the United Nations or the
affected government directly to organizations that specialize in varying
response and recovery tasks. Although the United States Government has
worked with the American Red Cross for decades, it has little experience
in more widespread application of this cooperative practice, and almost
no experience exists at the State and local levels. Since Katrina, many
changes have been made to accommodate such a system, and many new
cooperative agreements have been made -- a sign of the shift that is
already occurring.

Argument 3: Climate change equals bigger, stronger, and more numerous
disasters

Regardless of an individual's theory on the causes of climate change --
be it part of a natural cycle or a human induced trend -- it is
undeniable that the phenomenon is occurring and we are worse for wear as
result. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of
Foreign Disasters Assistance (OFDA) has already recognized and
documented that disasters are growing steadily in number. Their size and
reach are also increasing, and the result points to more regional,
multi-national disaster events that will increasingly involve the United
States. These disasters will require considerable cross-border
cooperation in their management, and will call upon an international
employment of many US emergency management resources.

Climate change is also bringing about a change in the very nature of the
nation's hazard profile. The United States is witnessing an increase in
the magnitude and intensity of existing hazards, and it is seeing for
the first time new hazards for which it has little or no experience at
all. For all of these hazard shifts, the nation's emergency managers
have much to learn from the many other countries that have endured such
events for millennia. The lessons that can be learned from them will
help to save lives and property in the short term, and spare our
communities from the shallow learning curve that results from
high-consequence, low probability disasters.

# Argument 4: Climate change means global instability

Addressing the impact of disasters outside of the United States has been
primarily managed by OFDA, the disaster management branch of USAID. This
assistance comes in the form of coordination, technical assistance, and
financial support. OFDA assistance serves two purposes: 1) It is a
diplomatic gesture, and 2) It is a humanitarian responsibility. However,
there is a third reason that will likely be added to these two that will
result in an increase in both the scope and the nature of US emergency
management assistance abroad.

A recent statement made by 11 retired US Generals and Admirals
proclaimed that climate change has become a national security issue[^1].
The crux of their argument is that the resultant disasters and
environmental degradation will create conditions in the affected
countries that contribute to a loss of stability affecting the United
States both directly (from a flood of illegal immigration) and
indirectly (resource loss, conflict, economic losses, terrorism). There
is a clear link between development and disaster management, and the
United States Government has already taken an active role in ensuring
the efficacy of how development aid already being spent in these
disaster-prone countries. This translates to a need for an expansion in
emergency management training more suitable for these different
climates, regions, and economies. And when disasters do occur, it will
be contingent upon the United States to ensure that the recovery that
follows allows for a viable future for the affected nations. This is a
much greater direct role than has traditionally been taken by US
emergency managers.

Argument 5: The expanding discipline demands the inclusion of
international disaster management studies

Today's disaster managers are taking on a much more important role in
municipal government at all levels, and are assuming responsibilities
way outside the realm of yesterday's professionals. Programs throughout
the country are recognizing the links between emergency management and
other careers and disciplines, including business, public health,
education, and international development. For instance, at the George
Washington University, home to the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and
Risk Management, cooperative agreements are already underway with the
university's Elliot School for International Affairs to allow students
of both disciplines the opportunity for shared knowledge and training.
The fact is, more and more students of emergency management will be
looking to work in the international community, and the one-sided view
of the United States' experience cannot adequately prepare them for the
range of issues that exist outside of our borders.

One of the primary obstacles to teaching international disaster
management in the past has been the lack of courses and textbook
resources with which educators could use with their students. A small
number of practitioners were relied upon to teach an even smaller number
of courses that were offered at a handful of universities. This trend
has begun to reverse, most notably in reaction to the massive
international response that followed the 2004 tsunami events in Asia.
Moreover, there finally exists a comprehensive university-level textbook
covering the full range of topics on the subject, appropriately titled
"Introduction to International Disaster Management," (2006) published by
Butterworth-Heinemann.

About the Author:

Damon P. Coppola received his M.E.M. in Crisis, Emergency, and Risk
Management from the George Washington University School of Engineering
and Applied Science. He is the author of *Introduction to International
Disaster Management*, and co-author of several leading emergency
management textbooks including *Introduction to Emergency Management*
and *Introduction to Homeland Security.* Mr. Coppola is co-author of the
FEMA EMI Higher Education Course *Hazards Risk Management*, and the FEMA
textbook *Emergency Management Case Studies*. He has provided emergency
and disaster management assistance to The World Bank, the United
Nations, The (US) Corporation for National and Community Service, Save
the Children US Programs, the Humane Society of the United States, The
Army Corps of Engineers, the Casey Foundation, the Council on
Foundations, and many municipal emergency management agencies. Mr.
Coppola currently resides in Bangkok, Thailand, and may be reached at
dcoppola@gwu.edu.

[^1]: The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Corporation brought together
    eleven retired three-star and four-star admirals and generals to
    provide advice, expertise and perspective on the impact of climate
    change. The resulting report, "National Security and the Threat of
    Climate Change," found that: 1) projected climate change poses a
    serious threat to America\'s national security, 2) climate change
    acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most
    volatile regions of the world, 3) projected climate change will add
    to tensions even in stable regions of the world, and 4) climate
    change, national security and energy dependence are a related set of
    global challenges.

    .