Journal of International Affairs articles from March 2006

Journal of International Affairs archives from March 2006

Editors' foreword.
March 22, 2006... When disasters strike, ecological damage reverberates across regions, local outbreaks become transnational pandemics, environmental changes stress socities, and famines and drought feed into the complex and devastating logic of conflict. As a...

Globalization of disaster: trends, problems and dilemmas.(CAPSTONE ESSAY)
March 22, 2006... After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 donor countries subscribed to post-disaster relief appeals so copiously that all the money could not be spent quickly enough to justify the reasons for which it was donated. For other...

The changing face of normal disaster: risk, resilience and natural security in a changing climate.(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... A natural disaster is by definition remarkable, and thereby often conceived and remembered as singular and unpredictable. Since the mid-1800s, for example, only about six major tropical cyclones per decade have struck the United States, and...

A critical evaluation of the United Nations volcanic emergency Management system: evidence from Latin America.(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... A chronic problem in the management of volcanic emergencies is the collective struggles and conflicts among the parties involved, many of which are beset with faulty public policies. Examples abound in the literature associated with this field,...

UK emergency preparedness: a step in the right direction?(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... In an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world, preparedness, at all levels, for a range of threats is a key aspect of effective emergency management and of public reassurance. Preparedness is a combination of structural and non-structural...

National preparedness planning: the historical context and current state of the U.S. public's readiness, 1940-2005.(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... In the United States, national public preparedness efforts meant to ready individuals and families for disasters have been driven primarily by international threats, actual or anticipated. These include terrorism, war and the potential for...

Combating infectious diseases in East Asia: securitization and global public goods for health and human security.(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... Since the Asia-wide outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003, the threats from infectious diseases have become more severe. No sooner had the region begun to recover from the devastating impact of SARS than news about the rising incidence of avian...

Towards a comparative political ethnography of disaster prevention.(PREVENTION, MITIGATION and PREPAREDNESS)
March 22, 2006... Every scholarly study of disasters documents that prevention, preparedness and response are determined by political factors. Increasingly, social scientists consider calamities not as fundamental interruptions to social and political life, but...

The responders' cauldron: the uniqueness of international disaster response.(RELIEF and RESPONSE)
March 22, 2006... Natural calamities claimed the lives of 249,896 people worldwide in 2004 in 360 reported disasters, compared to 84,570 killed in 1995 in 239 reported disasters, one indication that the frequency and effects of disasters on people is increasing....

"Regarding the pain of others": media, bias and the coverage of international, disasters.(RELIEF and RESPONSE)
March 22, 2006... Over the last two years the world has had a surfeit of disasters. Everywhere one turned there were new photographs of bodies lined up so relatives could come and claim them. In October 2005, the images of covered corpses, stunned faces, keening...

Rethinking international disaster aid finance.(RELIEF and RESPONSE)
March 22, 2006... Natural disasters pose daunting barriers to development in poor countries. The human and material losses resulting from droughts, floods, storms and earthquakes further impoverish already poor populations. The year 2005 was a case in point....

Acting on disaster diplomacy.(RELIEF and RESPONSE)
March 22, 2006... To define and explore disaster diplomacy, the initial question asked was "Do natural disasters induce international cooperation amongst countries that have traditionally been 'enemies'?" (1) Could disaster-related activities, both pre-disaster...

Globalization and disasters: issues of public health, state capacity and political action.(RELIEF and RESPONSE)
March 22, 2006... Historically, the first cycles of globalization began with people trading goods, ideas and rudimentary technology, and migration brought cultures across borders and oceans. Initially, the wealth brought by globalization was limited to a tiny...

Disaster reconstruction and risk management for poverty reduction.(COMMENTARIES on RECOVERY and RECONSTRUCTION)
March 22, 2006... After Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in late August 2005, and the world was shocked by the images of the thousands of victims stranded in the Superdome of New Orleans, many people asked, "How could this happen in...

The rise of the relief--and--reconstruction complex.(COMMENTARIES on RECOVERY and RECONSTRUCTION)
March 22, 2006... Massive infrastructure damage and great social dislocation have been common consequences of natural disasters and social disasters like wars. Up until a few years ago, the aims of relief and reconstruction efforts were fairly simple: immediate...

Rebuilding lives: the aftermath of the South Asia earthquake.(PHOTO ESSAY)
March 22, 2006... I arrived in Pakistan just one week after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck northern Pakistan and India on 8 October 2005, killing approximately 73,000 individuals in Pakistan and another 1,300 in India. (1) In terms of lasting impact, this...

Political capital deficits in Zimbabwean famine: national and international responsibility for prevention failure.(ANDREW WELLINGTON CORDIER ESSAY)
March 22, 2006... After a long and bitter civil war, on the eve of independence in 1980, Zimbabwe's future seemed promising. Robert Mugabe, the former leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), assumed the office of prime minister, inheriting an...

Scarcity, crises and choice.(Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed )(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared Diamond (New York: Viking, 2004), 592 pages. The title of Jared Diamond's new book is misleading, sounding like a melodramatic doomsayer's call to arms. A more truthful title for the...

When the invisible hand fails to catch the poor: the relationship between risk and poverty.(Insurance Against Poverty )(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Insurance Against Poverty Stefan Dercon, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 484 pages. In September 1993, Larry Summers, then under secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, met with the Russian prime minister to...

Preparing for the next outbreak: is America asking the right questions?(Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague?)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D. and Michael Bellomo (New York: AMACOM Books, 2005), 273 pages. In 1993, the filtration process that ensures the capture and removal of particulate matter from municipal water...

Blossoming networks and integrated infrastructure: mitigating disaster through human-centered technology.(SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World )(Book review)
March 22, 2006... SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World Martha Baer, Katrina Heron, Oliver Morton, Evan Ratliff (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 404 pages. Traditional emergency response systems are "command-and-control" structures:...

Disaster Response and Recovery: Strategies and Tactics for Effective Operations.(PREVIEW)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... DISASTER RESPONSE AND RECOVERY: STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FOR EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS a forthcoming work by David A. McEntire (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Soils, Inc., 2006.) In 2004 and 2005, the world saw an estimated human toll of over 370,000...

At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters 2d ed.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... AT RISK: NATURAL HAZARDS, PEOPLE'S VULNERABILITY AND DISASTERS (SECOND EDITION) Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon, Ian Davis and Ben Wisner (London: Routledge, 2004), 471 pages. The cover of the second edition of At Risk: Natural Hazards,...

Environment, Scarcity and Violence.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... ENVIRONMENT, SCARCITY AND VIOLENCE Thomas F. Homer-Dixon (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 272 pages. Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, has...

Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... CATASTROPHE & CULTURE: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF DISASTER Susanna M. Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith, eds. (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2002), 300 pages. In this intriguingly titled volume, the editors have compiled ten...

Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.(REQUIRED READING)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... HEAT WAVE: A SOCIAL AUTOPSY OF DISASTER IN CHICAGO Eric Klinenberg (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002), 328 pages. In examining the Chicago heat wave that killed an estimated 739 people over five days in July 1995, Klinenberg...

Toxic Turmoil: Psychological and Societal Consequences of Ecological Disasters.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... TOXIC TURMOIL: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS Johan M. Havenaar Julie G. Cwike Evelyn J. Brome (New York: Springer, 2002), 294 pages. Toxic Turmoil: Psychological and Societal Consequences of Ecological...

Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... BETRAYAL OF TRUST: THE COLLAPSE OF GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH Laurie Garrett (New York: Hyperion, 2000), 768 pages. In Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, Laurie Garrett provides a wealth of information to support her...

The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.(REQUIRED READING)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... THE MONSTER AT OUR DOOR: THE GLOBAL THREAT OF AVIAN FLU Mike Davis (New York: The New Press, 2005), 224 pages. In The Monster At Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu, author Mike Davis systematically examines the evolution of influenza...

Global Crises, Global Solutions.(REQUIRED READING)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... GLOBAL CRISES, GLOBAL SOLUTIONS Bjorn Lomborg, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 670 pages. Rather than concern themselves with the ephemeral effects of natural disasters, in Global Crises, Global Solutions, editor Bjorn...

Disaster and Development: The Politics of Humanitarian Aid.(REQUIRED READING)(Book review)
March 22, 2006... DISASTER AND DEVELOPMENT: THE POLITICS OF HUMANITARIAN AID Neil Middleton and Phil O'Keefe (London: Pluto Press, 1997), 202 pages. According to Middleton and O'Keefe, "In societies where extreme poverty is rife, everyday life is dangerous."...