Mega-crises : understanding the prospects, nature, characteristics, and the effects of cataclysmic events / edited by Ira Helsloot [and others].

Includes bibliographical references.

"We live in turbulent times with continents and nations facing ever-heightening risks such as natural disasters, intense and protracted conflicts, terrorism, corporate crises, cyber threats to infrastructures and mega-events. We are witnessing the rise of mega-crises and a new class of adversity with many unknowns. The prospect of mega-crises presents professionals and students in the field of crisis management with four major tasks. First, they should engage in 'deep thinking' about the causes of the increasing occurrence of mega-crises. Second, they should identify and work through the dominant trends which complicate contemporary crisis management. Third, they should upgrade institutional crisis management capacity. Fourth, they should improve societal resilience since no institutional complex can mitigate or manage these mega-crisis on its own. This book is divided into four primary parts, each of which looks at one facet of mega-crises. Part I focuses on the concept of a mega-crisis and mega-crisis management; Part II examines crisis management of mega-natural disasters; Part III evaluates crisis management of man-made mega-crises; and Part IV identifies mega-threats and vulnerabilities. Additional major topics include Hurricane Katrina; Hurricane Gustav; the London Bombings; the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks of July 7, 2005; corporate meltdowns; the subprime crisis; the Olympic Games; electricity grids; global climate change; the Dutch Delta; risks to food security; and mega-crises and the Internet. This comprehensive text will provide practitioners and academics with the results of an across-the-board research effort in the prospects, nature, characteristics, and the effects of mega-crises"--Provided by publisher.

The concept of mega-crisis and mega-crisis management -- Introduction / Ira Helsloot, Arjen Boin, Brian Jacobs, Louise K. Comfort -- The megacrisis unknown territory: in search of conceptual and strategic / Patrick Lagadec -- Observations on the political and decision-making dimensions of response / Herman B. Leonard, Arnold M. Howitt -- Crisis management of mega-natural disasters -- Hurricane Katrina: crisis leadership that failed a country / John R. Harrald -- Hurricane Katrina: the complex origins of a mega-disaster / Charles Parker, Eric Paglia -- Hurricane Gustav: the management of a transboundary crisis / Arjen Boin, Jude Egan -- Resilience, entropy, and efficiency in crisis management : the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake / Louise K. Comfort, Michael D. Siciliano, Aya Okada -- The challenges of mega crisis management : the 2008 Sichuan earthquake / Lan Xue, Ling Zhou -- The micro and macro dynamics of a mega-disaster : rethinking the Sri Lanka tsunami experience / Georg Frerks ...