Research Seminar on\
Critical Infrastructures, Technological and Natural Disasters\
and Public Policy

  ----------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------
  PUBP 710.008\           Todd M. La Porte \      Kevin Thomas\
  Spring Semester, 2003\  Associate Professor \   Research Associate
  Tuesdays, 4:30-7:00     Office hours: Tuesday,  Professor\
  p.m. \                  2 - 4 pm and\           Office hours: by appt.\
  School of Public            Thursday, 5 -7 pm;  Rm. 206, Truland
  Policy \                by appt. \              Building\
  Room 109 (formerly room Rm. 248, Arlington      (703) 993-8119\
  250)\                   Campus \                kthomas2 \*at\* gmu.edu
  Arlington Campus\       (202) 686-7115 (home)\  
  George Mason University tlaporte \*at\* gmu.edu 

  ----------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------

Revised February 20, 2003

**Course Description**

Large distributed network systems, electric power, telecommunications
and data, transportation, water and waste treatment, food distribution,
housing and shelter, public health and care systems, and finance and
banking:  all are foundations of complex modern societies.  

Threats to these systems due to human, technological and natural causes
are on the rise.  They are receiving increasing attention from civil and
military leaders, since societies\' dependence on such large and complex
systems makes them especially attractive targets for attack. Natural
disasters, too, disrupt the sometimes fragile systems on which we depend
for economic growth, physical protection and  social welfare.  Research
shows that the incidence, and cost, of natural disasters is on the rise.

This newly perceived vulnerability has caused designing, operating,
maintaining and protecting critical systems to take on a new urgency. 
Technological complexity, rapid social and regulatory change, and
globalization contribute to making the protection of such systems
potentially very difficult. Because of their importance to the overall
task of governance of modern, complex, technological societies, critical
infrastructure policies and politics will be the focus of this new
course.

To begin, students will be exposed to literatures that inform our
understanding of large, complex, sometimes risky technical systems.  We
will read and discuss work on normal accident theory, emergency
management, disaster assistance and public utility regulation and
deregulation,. We will look particularly at issues of public policy that
affect organizations\' capacity to function at high levels of
reliability.  We will examine how societies and organizations understand
and manage risk through both direct government control and through
systems of risk sharing and insurance.  And we will consider the extent
to which the design and operation of critical infrastructures present
problems of governance and values of concern to the public.  The reading
and discussion phase of the semester will last approximately 8 weeks.

During the second half of the term, students will conduct collaborative
research and fieldwork on critical infrastructure systems and
organizations, explore how they are planned and designed, and see how
they function during and after a natural or technical disaster or
attack.  Students will learn to perform infrastructure vulnerability
assessments by doing research on a critical infrastructure of their
choice, and will learn to conduct elite interviews with agency staff and
operatives in the Washington region.

This course will be conducted in association with the activities of the
Critical Infrastructure Working Group.

**Course Requirements and Grading**

The course will be conducted as a seminar. You are expected to:

-   complete assigned readings,

-   participate in in-class and electronic discussions,

-   participate in individual and group fieldwork,

-   prepare a final paper, approximately 20 pages in length, s

-   make a presentation on your group\'s activities.

Grades will be based on the following allocation:

  ------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
  In-class and electronic discussion                            20 %

  Final paper                                                   50 %

  Presentation                                                  30 %
  ------------------------------------------------------------- ---------

*In-class and electronic discussion*

Class and electronic discussion group participation is an important part
of this seminar. These discussions are intended to be highly
interactive, open, and even irreverent (but always respectful!).
Questions about many concepts are undoubtedly going to arise, and the
class bulletin board is a good place to raise them.  WebCT can be
accessed by clicking
[here](http://mason3.gmu.edu:8900/SCRIPT/ITRN701S00/scripts/serve_home)
, or by going to
[http://mason3.gmu.edu:8900/SCRIPT/ITRN701S00/scripts/serve_home.](http://mason3.gmu.edu:8900/SCRIPT/ITRN701S00/scripts/serve_home)

*Final paper*

Students are required to submit a written paper (6,000 words) that
reports on the fieldwork or problem area your group has investigated.
 It should apply the concepts the seminar will address, and expand on
them in light of developments you and your group have found.

This paper will be done in small groups or individually.  I encourage
students to work together to master the material, and to generate useful
ideas and insights.  If you work on a group paper, the contribution of
each member should be equal to a regular individual term paper effort;
the page length should reflect.  I may ask for individual assessments of
how the group worked, to fairly allocate credit to team members.

The presentation of the group\'s work is also an important activity.  If
you wish, you may consider as an audience for your presentation a senior
official of the organization or problem owner.  Presentations will be
given during the last two class sessions.  These could be used as
practice sessions for a briefing to senior management on your findings
and observations.

The format of the paper can be in any consistent and logical system, of
which there are many.  Diana Hacker\'s *A Pocket Style Manual* or *A
Writer\'s Reference* have been very useful to many students; copies are
on sale in the Arlington Campus bookstore. The paper must be
double-spaced on regular white paper.  Spelling, punctuation and syntax
are important, and will be considered in the final evaluation. The
University Writing Center can help with the mechanics of paper
composition, if you have any concerns about it.  See me if you have any
questions about writing, styles, etc.

The final paper will be due at 4:30 pm on May 5, 2003.

**Please note:** **All work must be your own.** Where the work of others
is used, even in paraphrased form, it must appropriately referenced,
including (especially!) material taken from on-line sources.  When in
doubt, cite!  Plagiarism is an Honor Code violation.  If you have any
questions about proper referencing practice, read the information at: 
<http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html> , or contact the
instructors.

In order to assure a level playing field for all students, we may
require that papers be submitted electronically in order to facilitate
source and fact checking.  For lists of \"term paper mills\" that share
or sell term papers, see <http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm> .
We\'re sure you can do work that is much higher quality than what is
purveyed here.

**Readings**

Readings will be available on the Web or through the Library\'s
Electronic Reserve System.  Suggested readings will be made available by
the instructors.  Electronic reserve readings are noted in the entries
below.

To access the **electronic reserves**, go to the Library\'s e-reserve
link:   <http://oscr.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/ers/OSCRgen.cgi>

Scroll through the list of courses (\"PUBP 710 section 008\") or
instructors (\"La Porte\"), and enter the **password** \"dial\" to get
access to the readings.  You may need to download Adobe Acrobat to view
some of the files.

**Discussion Topics**

**September 11**\
\
Homer-Dixon, Thomas, \"The Rise of Complex Terrorism.\" *Foreign
Policy,* January/February 2002, pp. 52-62. 
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_janfeb_2002/homer-dixon.html> . 
Accessed January 16, 2003.  Also on Electronic Reserve.\
\
Tierney, Kathleen J., \"Strength of a city: a disaster research
perspective on the World Trade Center attack,\" *Social Science Research
Council/After Sept. 11,* 2002.  
<http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/tierney.htm>   Also on Electronic
Reserve.\
\
Kelly, John and David Stark,  \"Crisis, Recovery, Innovation:  Learning
from 9/11.\"  Working paper for the Center on Organizational Innovation,
Columbia University, May 2002. 
<http://www.coi.columbia.edu/pdf/kelly_stark_cri.pdf>  Also on
Electronic Reserve.\
\
Steven Cohen, William Eimicke, and Jessica Horan, \"Catastrophe and the
public service: A case study of the government response to the
destruction of the World Trade Center,\" *Public Administration Review,*
vol. 62, September 2002, pp. 24- .  Draft:  
[http://www.columbia.edu/\~sc32/CATASTROPHE%20AND%20THE%20PUBLIC%20SERVICE.pdf](http://www.columbia.edu/~sc32/CATASTROPHE AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE.pdf)\
\
Also on Electronic Reserve.**\
\
Recommended reading\
*\
****Understanding September 11,* \[essays compiled by the Social Science
Research Council\], (New York:  New Press, 2002).
<http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/>  Also on Electronic Reserve.\
\
\"After-Action Report on the Response to the September 11 Terrorist
Attack on the Pentagon,\" document prepared for Arlington County by
Titan Systems Corporation under a grant from Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs, Office for Domestic Preparedness, contract
number GS10F0084K, order number 2001F_341.
<http://www.co.arlington.va.us/fire/edu/about/pdf/after_report.pdf> .
 Accessed February 7, 2003.

**Hazards, disasters and emergencies**\
\
Tierney, Kathleen J., et al., eds, *Facing the unexpected: disaster
preparedness and response in the United States,* (Washington:  Joseph
Henry Press, 2001).  Available at
[http://print.nap.edu/pdf/0309069998/pdf_image/](http://www.nap.edu/books/0309069998/html/)
 (PDF-easier to download, but unofficial) or  (Open Book-hard to
download, but official).  See especially:\
   \
    \"Conceptualizing Disasters and Their Impacts,\" chap. 1, pp. 1-26;\
    \"Getting Ready:  Research on Disaster Preparedness,\" chap. 2, pp.
27-28, 46-79;\
    \"Meeting the Challenge:  Organizational and Governmental Responses
in Disasters,\" chap. 4, pp. 121-136, 143-156;\
    \"Factors Influencing Disaster Preparedness and Response,\" chap. 5,
pp. 157-166, 188-197;\
    \"The Wider Context:  Societal Factors Influencing Emergency
Management Policy and Practice,\" chap. 6, pp. 199-224;\
    \"Where Do We Go From Here?\" chap. 7, pp. 254-260.\
\
Mileti, Dennis S., *Disasters by design: a reassessment of natural
hazards in the United States,* (Washington, DC:  National Academy Press,
1999). Available at <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309063604/html/>  See
especially:\
   \
    \"A sustainablility Framework for Natural and Technological
Hazards,\" chap. 1, pp. 17-39;\
    \"Economic Costs and Impacts,\" chap. 3, pp. 65-104 (skim);\
    \"Influences on the Adoption and Implementation of Mitigation,\"
chap. 5, pp. 135-154;\
    \"Preparedness, Response and Recovery,\" chap. 7, pp. 209-240.\
\
Comfort, Louise K., \"Governance Under Fire: Organizational Fragility in
Complex Systems,\" in *Governance and Public Security,* (Syracuse, NY: 
Syracuse University Press, 2002).  Draft:
<http://webdev.maxwell.syr.edu/campbell/Governance_Symposium/comfort.pdf>\
\
**Recommended reading**\
\
Waugh, William L., *Living with hazards, dealing with disasters: an
introduction to emergency management,* (Armonk, NY:M. E. Sharpe, 2000).\
\
Chiles, James R., *Inviting disaster: lessons from the edge of
technology,* (New York:  HarperBusiness, 2001).

**Technological disasters and risk**\
\
Perrow, Charles, \"Organizing to Reduce the Vulnerabilities of
Complexity,\" *Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management,* vol. 7,
no. 3, September 1999, pp. 150-155.  On Electronic Reserve.\
\
Perrow, Charles, *Normal Accidents:  Living with High Risk
Technologies,* rev. ed., (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1999).
 Originally published in 1984.  On Electronic Reserve.  See especially\
\
    \"Complexity, Coupling, and Catastrophe,\" chap. 3, pp. 62-100, and\
    \"Living with High Risk Systems,\" pp. 304-352.  \
\
Rochlin, Gene, *Trapped in the Net:  The Unanticipated Consequences of
Computerization,* (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1997).  Full
text available at <http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/books/rochlin/> .
 Also on Electronic Reserve.  See especially:\
\
    \"The Logistics of Techno-War,\" chap. 10,
<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/books/rochlin/chapter_10.html>\
    \"C3I in Cyberspace,\" chap. 11,
<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/books/rochlin/chapter_11.html>\
    \"Invisible Idiots,\" chap. 12,
<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/books/rochlin/chapter_12.html>\
    *\
*Clarke, Lee and James Short, "Social organization and risk:  some
current controversies," *Annual Review of Sociology,* vol. 19, 1993, pp.
375-399.  On Electronic Reserve.\
\
**Recommended reading**\
\
Sagan, Scott D., *The Limits of Safety:  Organizations, Accidents, and
Nuclear Weapons,* (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1995).\
\
Neumann, Peter G., *Computer-related risks,* (New York:  Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., 1995).

**Managing organizations to mitigate risk**\
\
Wildavsky, Aaron, *Searching for safety,* (New Brunswick, NJ:
 Transaction Books, 1988).  On Electronic Reserve.  See especially\
\
    \"Anticipation Versus Resilience,\" chap. 4, pp. 77-103, and\
    \"The Secret of Safety Lies in Danger,\" chap. 10, pp. 205-228.\
\
Rees, Joseph V., *Hostages of each other:  the transformation of nuclear
safety since Three Mile Island,* (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press,
1996).  On Electronic Reserve.  See especially\
\
    \"Lessons of Three Mile Island,\" chap 2, pp. 11-26,\
    \"Institute of Nuclear Power Operations,\" pp. 41-64, and\
    \"Communal Pressure,\" chap. 6, pp. 91-120.\
\
Robin M. Hogarth, \"Insurance and Safety After September 11:  Has the
World Become a \"Riskier\" Place?\" in *Understanding September 11,*
\[essays compiled by the Social Science Research Council\], (New York: 
New Press, 2002).   <http://www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/hogarth.htm>
 Also on Electronic Reserve.\
\
**Recommended reading**\
\
Reason, J. T., *Managing the risks of organizational accidents,*
(Ashgate Publishing Company, 1997).

**High reliability organizations**\
\
Roberts, Karlene H., Robert Bea and Dean L. Bartles, "Must accidents
happen? Lessons from high-reliability organizations," *The Academy of
Management Executive,* August 2001, vol., 15, no. 3, pp. 70-78.  On
Electronic Reserve.  \
\
Grabowski, Martha and Karlene Roberts, \"Risk mitigation in large-scale
systems: Lessons from high reliability organizations,\" *California
Management Review,* vol 39, Summer 1997, pp. 152-162.  On Electronic
Reserve.  \
\
Weick, Karl E., Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, Robert E. Quinn, *Managing the
unexpected: assuring high performance in an age of complexity,* (New
York:  John Wiley & Sons, 2001).  On Electronic Reserve.  See
especially\
\
    \"Managing the Unexpected,\" chap. 1, pp. 1-23,\
    \"The Expected\--and the Unexpected,\" chap. 2., pp. 25-50, and\
    \"A Closer Look at Process and Why Planning Can Make Things Worse,\"
pp. 51-83.\
\
**Recommended reading**\
\
La Porte, Todd R. and Paula Consolini, \"Working in practice but not in
theory:  theoretical challenges of high reliability organizations,\"
*Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory,* vol. 1, pp.
19-47.\
\
Schulman, Paul R., \"The negotiated order of organizational
reliability,\" *Administration & Society,* vol. 25, no. 3, November
1993, pp. 353-373.  On Electronic Reserve.  

**Organizations and coordination**\
\
Chisholm, Donald, *Coordination without hierarchy: informal structures
in multiorganizational systems,* (Berkeley; Oxford: University of
California Press, 1989).

**Critical infrastructures and assurance**\
\
Presidental Decision Directive 62,
<http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/white_pr.htm>\
Presidental Decision Directive 63,
<http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/general/pdd62.htm>\
Both on Electronic Reserve.\
\
Miriam Heller, \"Interdependencies in Civil Infrastructure Systems,\"
*The Bridge* \[a publication of the National Academy of Engineering\],
vol. 31, no. 4, Winter 2001.  
<http://www.nae.edu/nae/naehome.nsf/weblinks/KGRG-573PLA?OpenDocument>\
\
Amin, Massoud, \"National Infrastructures as Complex Interactive
Networks,\" in *Automation, Control, and Complexity: New Developments
and Directions,* Samad & Weyrauch (eds.), John Wiley and Sons, 2000, pp.
263-286.   <http://www.complexityandpolicy.org/images/chapter14.pdf>\
\
Piller, Charles, \"Hackers Target Energy Industry:  Computers: Attacks
at power companies are up substantially. Some experts blame industrial
spying and mischief, others fear terrorism,\" *Los Angeles Times,* July
8, 2002, n.p.  Accessed July 10, 2002.\
\
Gellman, Barton, "Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared:  Terrorists at
Threshold of Using Internet as Tool of Bloodshed, Experts Say,"
*Washington Post,* June 27, 2002, pp. A01-\
\
**Recommended reading**\
\
National Research Council, *Making the Nation Safer:  Science and
Technology to Counter Terrorism,* (Washington, DC: National Academy
Press, 2002).   <http://www.nap.edu/html/stct/index.html> .  Also on
Electronic Reserve.  See especially\
\
    \"Information Technology,\" chap. 5, pp. 135-176,\
    \"Energy Systems,\" chap. 6, pp. 177-209,\
    \"Cities and Fixed Infrastructure,\" chap. 8, pp. 238-266 ,\
    \"Complex and Interdependent Systems,\" chap. 10, pp. 287-312.\
\
Sandia National Labs, "Infrastructure Assurance Strategic Roadmaps,"
August 1998.

**Homeland Security:  Policy and government**\
\
National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical
Infrastructures and Key Assets, February 2003,
<http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary/Physical_Strategy.pdf>\
\
M. Shamsul Haque, \"Government responses to terrorism: critical views of
their impacts on people and public administration,\" *Public
Administration Review,* Washington; September 2002, pp. 170-  On
Electronic Reserve.  \
\
Waugh , William L., Jr. and Richard T. Sylves, \"Organizing the war on
terrorism,\" *Public Administration Review,* vol. 62, September 2002,
pp. 145-  On Electronic Reserve.  \
\
Wise, Charles R. and Rania Nader, \"Organizing the federal system for
homeland security: Problems, issues, and dilemmas,\" *Public
Administration Review,* vol. 62, September 2002, pp. 44-  On Electronic
Reserve.  

**Qualitative and field work methodologies**\
\
Schutt,  R. K., \"Qualitative Methods:  Observing, Participating,
Listening,\" chap. 8 in *Investigating the Social World:  the Process
and Practice of Social Research,* 3rd. ed., (Thousand Oaks, CA:  Pine
Forge Press, 2001), pp. 263-307.  On Electronic Reserve.  \
\
Johnson, J. B. and R. A. Joslyn, \"Elite Interviewing and Survey
Research,\" chap. 10 in *Political Science Research Methods,*
(Washington:  CQ Press, 1995), pp. 261-293.\
\
**Recommended reading\
**\
Babbie, E., *The practice of social research,* (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing Co, 1989).\
\
Creswell, J. W., *Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing
among five traditions,* (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998).\
\
Guba, E. G. & Lincoln, Y. S., *Fourth generation evaluation,* (Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989).\
\
Yin, R. K., *Case study research: design and methods,* vol. 5, (London:
Sage Publications, 1984).