Identifying Crisis Threats: A Partial Synthesis of the Literature on Crisis Threat Assessment with Relevance to Public Administrations

Abstract

The crisis management literature offers a host of theoretical treatises that are relevant to crisis threat assessment in public administrations; however, these insights remain non-cumulative, non-consolidated, and unstructured in a field of individual contributions. Using existing literature regarding crisis definitions, crisis classifications, and crisis threat assessment tools, this exploratory paper identifies crucial analytical approaches to crisis threat assessment with relevance to public administrations. A critical evaluation of the specific research reveals gaps in the theoretical knowledge base and identifies three conceptual requirements for promoting a profound theorization of the field: the provision of relevant crisis threat variables, the specification of these variables, and the consolidation of the existing crisis threat assessment literature.