Placing Islands at Risk: Developmentalism, Militarism, Geopolitics, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

Abstract

Islands have come to be seen as a distinct object of disaster risk and climate change policy and research. This is reflected in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR), which specifies Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as in need of specialized policies, attention, and support. This article directs an island studies perspective toward the SFDRR, discussing obstacles to the framework’s implementation in island contexts. Focus is placed on two interrelated sets of issues: (1) problematic aspects of the concepts of “development” as it is applied to islands (particularly in the SIDS category); and (2) international cooperation, militarism, and geopolitics. The study found that although island societies can benefit from the attention brought to them by the SFDRR, the framework engages in rhetoric that may limit island possibilities and potentials while distracting from more fundamental changes that should be made by other state and non-state actors.