Strategic management of natural disasters : Italy, Japan and the United States in comparison

Italy, Japan and the United States are exposed to numerous natural hazards. In particular, geophysical, hydro-meteorological and climatological extreme events have produced loss of human life, injuries and extensive damage to homes, businesses and other infrastructure. In this dissertation, the Italian, Japanese and American disaster planning and management abilities of the last twenty years are analyzed and evaluated according to two common frameworks in disaster Literature: Hyogo (2005) requirements for good preparedness planning and Quarantelli’s (1997) ten criteria for good disaster management. Moreover, while authors prevalently confine the application of stakeholder theories to private sector contexts, this thesis approaches disaster management issues by applying Freeman’s (1984) definition and Savage et al.’s (1991) model of stakeholder management. As a result of the combination of disaster management principles and stakeholder theories, the conclusions reached through this research may inspire Italian, Japanese and American policymakers and emergency managers on how to ideally plan for and manage natural disasters, while taking into consideration and appropriately approaching the involved emergency management stakeholders

United States Human Trafficking Task Force

Human Trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry which is both a domestic and foreign issue for the United States government. The purpose of this paper is to address the issues such as: lack of a centralized task force, lack of funding and an introduction of a new method of investigation which utilizes intelligence to fight human trafficking. The results found through research and interviews with federal agents have shown that a federal task force utilizing federal, state, and local law enforcement along with nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) and government would have a positive, profound effect against human trafficking. It is recommended that law enforcement fight human trafficking by collecting evidence via intelligence gathering methods and then disseminate the information to the appropriate agencies. This would enable law enforcement to track human trafficking trends as they cycle through the country. With a centralized task force, member agencies would be able to easily access the intelligence databases and communicate with one another. Since human trafficking is a covert crime which moves quickly with high stakes, communication and collaboration are extremely important in order to fight it

The International Community and the CIS-7

The international community has sought to assist the development efforts of the CIS-7 countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The international financial institutions have played a leading role in these efforts. Despite considerable engagement with the governments of these countries, overall progress has been disappointing. In this paper, we review the contribution of the international community to the transition challenge facing the CIS-7 countries and assess whether a change in strategy is warranted.CIS7, international financial institutions, policy reform, external debt

US Nation Building in Afghanistan

Why has the US so dramatically failed in Afghanistan since 2001? Dominant explanations have ignored the bureaucratic divisions and personality conflicts inside the US state. This book rectifies this weakness in commentary on Afghanistan by exploring the significant role of these divisions in the US’s difficulties in the country that meant the battle was virtually lost before it even began. The main objective of the book is to deepen readers’ understanding of the impact of bureaucratic politics on nation-building in Afghanistan, focusing primarily on the Bush administration. It rejects the ‘rational actor’ model, according to which the US functions as a coherent, monolithic agent. Instead, internal divisions within the foreign policy bureaucracy are explored, to build up a picture of the internal tensions and contradictions that bedevilled US nation-building efforts

Designing Institutions to Deal with Terrorism in the United States

The explosion in the 21st century of terrorist activities by Islamic radicals in the United States, Europe and Asia requires reforming the institutions for domestic counterterrorism (CT) and new international relations among individual national CT organizations. This paper discusses the institutional reforms for CT in the United States, focusing particularly on the changes in the FBI. These changes are compared with the way that the British CT activities of the MI5 and MI6 have evolved in response to terrorism in Britain. The paper also discusses the reasons why there is strong cooperation among the CT activities of all the major governments and with the United States in particular, even when those governments do not agree about military cooperation or about the use of economic sanctions.