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Governing After Crisis
The Politics of Investigation, Accountability and Learning |
| Edited by: Arjen Boin, Allan McConnell, Paul 't Hart |
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The constant threat of crises such as disasters, riots and terrorist attacks poses a frightening challenge to Western societies and governments. While the causes and dynamics of these events have been widely studied, we know little about what happens following their containment and the restoration of stability. This volume explores ‘post-crisis politics,’ examining how crises give birth to longer term dynamic processes of accountability and learning which are characterised by official investigations, blame games, political manoeuvring, media scrutiny and crisis exploitation. Drawing from a wide range of contemporary crises, including Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the Madrid train bombings, the Walkerton water contamination, Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia and the Boxing Day Asian tsunami, this is a ground-breaking volume which addresses the longer term impact of crisis-induced politics. Competing pressures for stability and change mean that policies, institutions and leaders may occasionally be uprooted, but often survive largely intact. |
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'Too many are unprepared to handle crisis; still more are ignorant of post-crisis dynamics. This book allows us to understand the issues involved and to choose the appropriate roadmaps in the post-event phase. Do not miss these illuminating case studies: they could - tonight or tomorrow - tip the balance between fiasco and success.’
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Patrick Lagadec, Director of Research, Ecole Polytechnique, Paris
‘This volume laudably focuses on a relatively neglected topic, the specifically political dimensions of crises and disasters. The authors also make a good case that political elites and organizations more than citizens have to be held accountable for their behavior, since they are the locus of pre-crisis policy decisions. Another worthwhile emphasis is on the differential effects of crisis management on politicians and public officials.’
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E. L. Quarantelli Professor Emeritus, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware
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The Politics of Crisis Management
Public Leadership Under Pressure |
| by: Arjen Boin, Paul 't Hart, Eric Stern, and Bengt Sundelius |
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| Winner of the 2007 Herbert A. Simon Best Book Award for the best book on public administration published in the last 3 to 5 years that has made a significant contribution to public administration, presented by the American Political Science Association. |
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"This compact monograph should be required reading for anyone who wishes to engage with the institutional implications of extreme natural or political events in the coming decade."
- International Public Management Journal
"Their excellent book provides a concise and insightful account of state-of-the-art policy practise and research on crisis management in the post 9/11 period. … the authors provide a coherent and stimulating account."
- Public Administration
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Journal Reviews:
Todd R. Laporte, Univeristy of California-Berkeley, International Public Management Journal Vol. 10, No. 1, 2007
Bertjan Verbeek, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, Acta Politica (2006) 41
Brian Jacobs, Staffordshire University, Public Administration Vol. 85, No. 2, 2007
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Managing Crises: Threats, Dilemmas and Opportunities
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| by: Uriel Rosenthal, Arjen Boin, Louise K. Comfort |
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In this book, the editors, with 25 notable contributors, expand the knowledge of crisis management, focusing on case studies of high-profile events that have occurred in recent history. Part One of the text aims at theoretical development through empirical case studies and also postulates a crisis typology and charts specific theoretical and administrative challenges. The "case bank," which comprises the bulk of the book, is presented in four additional sections. The first deals with the development of crises and compares the infamous Watts riots with the 1992 L.A. riots. It also analyzes the fragmented and complex international environment that allowed the "safe area" in Bosnia to be overrun by Bosnian Serbs in 1995. The final chapter chronicles the incredible human costs of mismanaged crisis in the Rwanda massacres in 1994. The second section explores the many decisional dilemmas that confront crisis managers. Cases include the fire at the Piper Alpha oil rig; the 1999 Turkish earthquakes; the Eindhoven, Holland plane crash; and crisis management of the Mad Cow epidemic disease in the U.K. The third section explores the long-term dimensions of crises and crisis management and particularly the development of national traumas such as the assassination of Sweden’s Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986, the 1992 Amsterdam air crash, and the TWA flight 800 disaster in 1996. The final section shifts focus to future scenarios such as speculative information technology disasters, potentially devastating viral epidemics, deteriorating environmental and societal conditions in Russia, the southwest U.S. coming water shortage, and the outlook for Japan, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries. Summarizing the research findings of the past decade, the authors describe patterns in the paths toward crises, the dilemmas and coping mechanisms that emerge during the thick of crisis, and, very importantly, the pathways that lead away from crisis.
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The European Union and Terrorism
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Edited by: David Spence
Contributions by: Arjen Boin |
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The September 11 attacks in the USA lent huge impetus to efforts to coordinate and expand the EU's counter-terrorism role, bringing about far-reaching cooperation and pushing the EU down the track of further European integration. The chapters in this book explain how and why this has come about and the mechanisms involved. They also critically assess the limits of such integration, the tensions between inter-governmental co-operation and individual human rights, and the implications for international, and especially transatlantic, relations. A selection of key documents rounds out the book with a valuable reference dimension.
Reviews:
"This book brings together key thinkers and is a welcome analysis of terrorism challenges. David Spence has succeeded in giving us a timely and thoughtful complement to the terrorism debate", Franco Frattini, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, in the preface
"book-length analyses of how the European Union as an actor is approaching and dealing with terrorism are scarce...a timely publication which cogently documents and critiques the European Union's response to terrorism thus far", Philipp Fluri, Executive Director, DCAF Brussels, in the foreword |
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