Managing risk and responding to the unknown

Abstract

With historical roots in the command and control approach of “civil defense,” disaster management (DM) has grown ever more “civilianized” as the old military model has evolved into one that engages citizens. In turn, DM has moved increasingly from dealing only with response to events and recovery to proactive attempts to prevent or at least reduce the potential losses. This approach is called “disaster risk reduction” (DRR). However, implementation of this fine ideal faces numerous problems. So far in the hands of a UN agency, globalization of DRR has not had the desired results.