1.5.0 Panel 1.5: “How Are Natural Disasters Events Similar or Dissimilar to Terrorist Attacks? A Debate on the Issues”
Authors: Mackey W. , Carl J. , Sutton S. , Long J. , Jackson S. , Lerat J‐P , Tulodieski Christian 
Published: November 2014

During the past year, natural disasters including the major earthquakes in Pakistan, the Tsunami floods of Indonesia, and the hurricanes and destruction in New Orleans, LA and the Gulf Coast region of the United States have caused major loss of life, injury and significant loss of property.

During the same period, insurgent attacks in Iraq, subway bombings in London, fire attacks on the city of Paris, and continued threats of terrorists throughout the world have placed life at risk.

Terrorism is the systematic use of violence and force as a means of coercion through fear and intimidation. As we have seen since World War II and experienced first hand since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the calculated murder of political personalities has given way to the random killing of innocent people and civilian populations. Natural disasters are perhaps even more threatening. How are these two kinds of events similar and dissimilar? How can the discipline of systems engineering assist to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate the risks of natural disasters and terrorist events.

Since September 11, 2001, INCOSE through its Anti‐Terrorism International Working Group (ATIWG) has focused the principles, techniques, and practices of systems engineering on how to reduce and eradicate international terrorism. We are taking this opportunity to expand emergency preparedness efforts to natural disasters as well.

Through the ATIWG sponsoring of panels at previous INCOSE symposia (2002–2004), writing papers for publication (2003), a tutorial (2004), and working group activities, the systems engineering community has discussed the application of collaborative engineering environments, simulation and modeling, religion, system solutions to defend against terrorism, psychology, and root causes of terrorism to address the vulnerabilities of systems as well as the attack responses to threats.

This panel continues the INCOSE application of systems engineering to these international problems by discussing the similarities and dissimilarities of natural disaster events and terrorist attacks.

The panel members will debate the similarities and dissimilarities between natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Each discussion will have a requirements analysis, add to or subtract from the current international strategies, address emergency preparedness strategy, and provide a benefit and risk analysis. Each argument will also address factors such as what is an affordable strategy, what are the consequences for the law and personal freedoms, what is feasible, and the ability to prepare, respond, recover and mitigate natural disaster and terrorist events.

Panel members and attendees may question and challenge the arguments. Systems engineers will benefit from this multidisciplinary debate. They will see that our systems engineering principles, techniques, and practices have application to complex multidiscipline societal problems. The objective, disciplined approach to problem analysis controls the emotional response to such difficult problems and offers insights that inform government decision makers.