p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} Crisis management has become one of the core challenges facing governments, but successful crisis response depends on effective public leadership. Building on insights from Pragmatist philosophy, this deeply nuanced book provides guidance and direction for public leaders tackling the most challenging tasks of the 21st century.

This book explores the role of elected leaders in disaster management. Filling a significant gap in disaster literature, the authors take a pragmatic approach to the relationships between the public under threat, the operational response, and the interests and actions of elected officials. Key tactics are explored, from the ways operational managers strategically deal with unreasonable political demands to what disaster officials argue is the responsibility of elected officials at all levels of government – that is, to ensure vital life-saving information reaches the people who need it most. The book draws on case studies such as the mismanagement of public perceptions by President George W. Bush during Hurricane Katrina in the United States and the widely acclaimed, heartfelt messages delivered by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh during the 2010–11 South-East Queensland floods in Australia. Drawing on a series of interviews with senior disaster managers in ten countries, this book is highly relevant for students, scholars and practitioners interested in disaster communication.

A newly updated edition of a concise and evidence-based approach to strategic crisis leadership.

The philosophy of pragmatism advances an evolutionary, learning-oriented perspective that is problem-driven, reflexive, and deliberative.

“The Art of Crisis "management" in China” honors the spirit of Zhu Ge Liang's invariable pragmatism which underlies the spirit of a management style in managing crisis situations that may be adopted successfully in China today. The significance of Zhu's philosophy nearly two thousand years later lies in its pragmatic relevance in managing joint ventures in China today. This book represents a collection of management crisis situations in which Zhu's approach would have prevailed if applied. For the benefit of joint venture managers in crisis situations, the collection of war stories contained herein, is presented together with excerpts from Zhu's own classic treatise on leadership and management of situations. “The Art of Crisis "management" in China” is the one book that helps smooth out relations between partners, and comfort the lonely expat managers involved in China's joint ventures.