Disaster, Security, and Governance

MAGG Spring 2014Bin Xu

Assistant ProfessorFlorida International University

Historical Trends in American Disaster Management

• Entangled with civil defense

• Ambiguity of the institutional term “emergency”

The Cold War and the Rise of Civil Defense

1. Disaster management was incorporated into civil defense system

2. The Federal Disaster Relief Act of 1950

3. Dual-use approach

The Birth of FEMA

• Jimmy Carter’s “Reorganization Plan No.3”

• April 1, 1979 FEMA was born

• Civil defense was still one of FEMA’s duties

FEMA in the 1980s and 1990s

• The Reagan years: the Stafford Act; civil defense took precedence

• The Clinton years: FEMA’s “golden years”

9/11 Remade Disaster Management

• The Department of Homeland Security

• A weakened FEMA with limited resources and power

• “National preparedness”: a program responding to terrorist attacks

• Back to the Cold War period

Federal Emergency Management Organizations (p.53)

Organization DatesHousing and Home Finance Administration

1951-1953

Federal Civil Defense Administration 1953-1958Office of Civil Defense and Mobilization 1958-1961Office of Emergency Planning (Emergency Preparedness)

1961-1973

Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, and Federal Preparedness Agency

1973-1979

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

1979-2003

Department of Homeland Security 2003-

Organizational Failure and Militarism

• Civil defense and American disaster management system

• 9/11 effects: DHS and FEMA

• Militarism

Organizational Failure and Militarism

“Looting” and “Violence”

Media framed “lawlessness and anarchy”

Troops with combat mission

Militarism w/in the

government

FEMA w/ limited resources and

authority

Inadequate food and supplies

Major characters in this drama

• "Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country!"

Major characters in this drama

• “Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.”

Major characters in this drama

The Survivors

Video Illustration and Discussion

• When the Levees Broke (ACT II, 14:22-43:22)

• What disaster governance issues do you see in the documentary ?