Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response
How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability

Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response is the first systematic attempt to understand how private decisions affect public vulnerability.

Philip E. Auerswald (Edited by), Lewis M. Branscomb (Edited by), Todd M. La Porte (Edited by), Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan (Edited by)

9780521685726, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 September 2006

576 pages, 40 tables
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.7 cm, 0.783 kg

'This important book calls for a public-private national infrastructure protection plan to replace the current disorganized and dysfunctional response to catastrophic threats from terrorism, natural disasters and gargantuan operational errors. It asks the hard questions about how government and business can define and finance respective roles and stop the Alphonse and Gaston routine which makes disasters even more disastrous.' Ben W. Heineman, Jr, Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Former Senior Vice President and General Counsel of GE

In the wake of 9/11 and hurricane Katrina, executives and policymakers are increasingly motivated to reduce the vulnerability of social and economic systems to disasters. Most prior work on 'critical infrastructure protection' has focused on the responsibilities and actions of government rather than on those of the private sector firms that provide most vital services. Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response is the first systematic attempt to understand how private decisions and operations affect public vulnerability. It describes effective and sustainable approaches - both business strategies and public policies - to ensure provision of critical services in the event of disaster. The authors are business leaders from multiple industries and are experts in risk analysis, economics, engineering, organization theory and public policy. The book shows the necessity of deeply rooted collaboration between private and public institutions, and the accountability and leadership required to progress from words to action.

Foreword General Robert T. Marsh
Part I. Seeds of Disaster: 1. Where private efficiency meets public vulnerability: the critical infrastructure challenge Philip Auerswald, Lewis M. Branscomb, Todd M. La Porte and Erwann Michel-Kerjan
Part II. A Critical Challenge: 2. A nation forewarned: vulnerability of critical infrastructure in the twenty-first century Lewis M. Branscomb
3. The brittle superpower Stephen E. Flynn
4. Critical infrastructure protection in the United States since 1993 Brian Lopez
5. Evolution of vulnerability assessment methods Brian Lopez
Part III. Managing Organizations: 6. Managing for the unexpected: reliability and organizational resilience Todd M. La Porte
7. Notes toward a theory of the management of vulnerability Robert A. Frosch
8. Challenges of assuring high reliability when facing suicidal terrorism Todd M. La Porte
9. Managing for reliability in an age of terrorism Paul R. Schulman and Emery Roe
10. Organizational strategies for complex system resilience, reliability, and adaptation Todd M. La Porte
Part IV. Securing Networks: 11. Complexity and interdependence: the unmanaged challenge Philip Auerswald
12. Managing reliability in electric power companies Jack Feinstein
13. Coordinated and uncoordinated crisis responses by the electric industry Michael Kormos and Thomas Bowe
14. Electricity: protecting essential services Jay Apt, M. Granger Morgan and Lester B. Lave
15. A cyber threat to national security? Sean P. Gorman
16. Interdependent security in interconnected networks Geoffrey Heal, Michael Kearns, Paul Kleindorfer and Howard Kunreuther
Part V. Creating Markets: 17. Insurance, the 14th critical sector Erwann Michel-Kerjan
18. Private risk management for terrorist attacks Lloyd Dixon and Robert Reville
19. Terrorism, insurance, and preparedness: connecting the dots James W. Macdonald
20. Looking beyond TRIA: a clinical examination of potential terrorism loss sharing Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan
21. Financing catastrophe risk with public and private (re)insurance resources Franklin W. Nutter
Part VI. Building Trust: 22. Private-public collaboration on a national and international scale Lewis M. Branscomb and Erwann Michel-Kerjan
23. Information sharing with the private sector: history, challenges, innovation, and prospects Daniel B. Prieto
24. Sharing the watch: public-private collaboration for infrastructure security John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser
25. The Paris initiative, 'anthrax and beyond': transnational collaboration among interdependent critical networks Patrick Lagadec and Erwann Michel-Kerjan
Part VII. Roots of Response: 26. Leadership: who will act? Philip Auerswald, Lewis M. Branscomb, Todd M. La Porte and Erwann Michel-Kerjan.

Subject Areas: International law [LB], Business & management [KJ], Economics [KC], Politics & government [JP]