When an earthquake hits a war zone or cyclone aid is flown in by an enemy, many ask: Can catastrophe bring peace? Disaster prevention and mitigation provide similar questions. Could setting up a flood warning system bring enemy countries together? Could a regional earthquake building code set the groundwork for wider regional cooperation? This book examines how and why disaster-related activities do and do not create peace and reduce conflict. Disaster-related activities refer to actions before a disaster such as prevention and mitigation along with actions after a disaster such as emergency response, humanitarian relief, and reconstruction. This volume investigates disaster diplomacy case studies from around the world, in a variety of political and disaster circumstances, from earthquakes in Greece and Turkey affecting these neighbours’ bilateral relations to volcanoes and typhoons influencing intra-state conflict in the Philippines. Dictatorships are amongst the case studies, such as Cuba and Burma, along with democracies such as the USA and India. No evidence is found to suggest that disaster diplomacy is a prominent factor in conflict resolution. Instead, disaster-related activities often influence peace processes in the short-term—over weeks and months—provided that a non-disaster-related basis already existed for the reconciliation. That could be secret negotiations between the warring parties or strong trade or cultural links. Over the long-term, disaster-related influences disappear, succumbing to factors such as a leadership change, the usual patterns of political enmity, or belief that an historical grievance should take precedence over disaster-related bonds. This is the first book on disaster diplomacy. Disaster-politics interactions have been studied for decades, but usually from a specific political framing, covering a specific geographical area, or from a specific disaster framing. As well, plenty of quantitative work has been completed, yet the data limitations are rarely admitted openly or thoroughly analysed. Few publications bring together the topics of disasters and politics in terms of a disaster diplomacy framework, yielding a grounded, qualitative, scientific point of view on the topic.

Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine - A Practical Guide provides a framework for use by health professionals visiting a resource-constrained environment. Encompassing problems brought about by local conflict or natural disasters, the book covers preparation, organisation, logistics, treatment of major trauma and medical emergencies, and the special problems of delivering medicine in a hostile environment. Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine - A Practical Guide comprehensively tackles: - self-preparation of health professionals to face a range of medical and related problems which occur in hostile and remote environments; - war and disaster medicine, covering acute management, rehabilitation, reconstruction and prevention; - bridging the fields of medicine, nursing, international relations, history, politics and economics. The book also touches on nutrition, infection, trauma, psychiatry and psychological medicine and training. James Ryan, Leonard Cheshire Professor of Conflict Recovery, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK Peter F Mahoney, Consultant Anaesthetist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Conflict Medicine, Leonard Cheshire Centre, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK Ian Greaves, Lecturer in Conflict Medicine, Leonard Cheshire Centre, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK Gavin Bowyer, Consultant in Orthopaedic Surgery, Southampton General Hospital, UK.

People with disabilities are among the most adversely affected during conflict situations or when natural disasters strike. They experience higher mortality rates, have fewer available resources and less access to help, especially in refugee camps, as well as in post-disaster environments. Already subject to severe discrimination in many societies, people with disabilities are often overlooked during emergency evacuation, relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts. Countries party to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must take all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of people with disabilities during situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and natural disasters. Such aid should be designed to support preparedness, response, recovery and rebuilding. This book includes perspectives from around the globe and explores the implications at the policy, programme, and personal level, discussing issues such as: How can national laws, policies, and regulations provide guidance, methods and strategies to integrate and coordinate inclusive emergency management? What should people with disabilities know in order to be prepared for emergency situations? What lessons have we learned from past experiences? What are the current shortfalls (physical and cultural) that put people with disabilities at risk during emergencies and what can be done to improve these situations (e.g. through new technologies and disaster planning)? How does disability affect people’s experiences as refugees and other displaced situations; what programmes and best practices are in place to protect and promote their rights during their period of displacement? How must disabled people with disabilities be factored in to the resettlement and rebuilding process; does an opportunity for ensuring universal access exist in the rebuilding process? What is the impact of disasters and conflicts on such special populations as disabled women, disabled children, and those with intellectual disabilities? Spotlighting a pressing issue that has long been neglected in emergency planning fields, this innovative book discusses how to meet the needs of people with disabilities in crises and conflict situations. It is an important reference for all those working in or researching disability and inclusion, and emergency and disaster management, both in developed and developing countries.

First published in 1999, this book describes what the International community of scientific institutions could do to reverse this trend, by pooling its know-how and resources in International and interdisciplinary working groups and standing committees, by preparing options for action and by standing the possibilities for overcoming the political and economic obstacles to the implementation of expert advice. The reasons are given why neighboring groups of people sooner or later start fighting each other unless certain conditions are fulfilled. These conditions are enumerated. Historical examples are presented. Since lack of mutual trust, often based on inherited enemy images, is at the roots of many conflicts is shown how trust among former opponents can be created by working on joint projects, particularly when both sides are threatened by the same danger. In previous history this danger was often a common enemy. Today we must learn that all of mankind is threatened by environmental and other global problems which can only be mastered by joint efforts, forgetting the enmities of earlier generations. Furthermore, it is explained that many catastrophes could be avoided if risks were properly assessed and taken seriously and necessary precautions not avoided for financial reasons, just hoping for the best.

The term 'natural disaster' is often used to refer to natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes or floods. However, the phrase 'natural disaster' suggests an uncritical acceptance of a deeply engrained ideological and cultural myth. At Risk questions this myth and argues that extreme natural events are not disasters until a vulnerable group of people is exposed. The updated new edition confronts a further ten years of ever more expensive and deadly disasters and discusses disaster not as an aberration, but as a signal failure of mainstream 'development'. Two analytical models are provided as tools for understanding vulnerability. One links remote and distant 'root causes' to 'unsafe conditions' in a 'progression of vulnerability'. The other uses the concepts of 'access' and 'livelihood' to understand why some households are more vulnerable than others. Examining key natural events and incorporating strategies to create a safer world, this revised edition is an important resource for those involved in the fields of environment and development studies.

Contextualizing Disaster offers a comparative analysis of six recent "highly visible" disasters and several slow-burning, "hidden," crises that include typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, chemical spills, and the unfolding consequences of rising seas and climate change. The book argues that, while disasters are increasingly represented by the media as unique, exceptional, newsworthy events, it is a mistake to think of disasters as isolated or discrete occurrences. Rather, building on insights developed by political ecologists, this book makes a compelling argument for understanding disasters as transnational and global phenomena.

A consistent problem that confronts disaster reduction is the disjunction between academic and expert knowledge and policies and practices of agencies mandated to deal with the concern. Although a great deal of knowledge has been acquired regarding many aspects of disasters, such as driving factors, risk construction, complexity of resettlement, and importance of peoples’ culture, very little has become protocol and procedure. Disaster Upon Disaster illuminates the numerous disjunctions between the suppositions, realities, agendas, and executions in the field, goes on to detail contingencies, predicaments, old and new plights, and finally advances solutions toward greatly improved outcomes.