Volume 4, Issue 1

Following September 11, 2001, U.S. policymakers created programs to protect the maritime supply chain. This paper analyzes one program, the Container Security Initiative, which inspects high-risk U.S.-bound containers at foreign ports. Although covering a small proportion of all ports that ship imports to the United States, the CSI has expanded rapidly and as of early 2006 covered two-thirds of U.S. containerized imports. However, CSI coverage of imports from potential terrorism source countries was lower than the overall U.S. average. Security planners can strengthen container-related maritime security by focusing on dangerous source regions and likely terrorist shipping routes.

One of the most significant, incontestable, and relatively ignored aspects of modernity is the new role states play as generators and facilitators of disasters, on the one hand, and as authors — or at least facilitators, sponsors, and coordinators — of survival and relief operations, on the other hand. The relation of the modern state to disaster has played an important role in the emergence of the state as a "totalizing totality" (of spaces, people, groups, associations, and institutions) and in the constitution of its image as a historical subject.This Article argues that state's relation to disaster and its unfolding consequences has developed in two opposite directions that should be distinguished carefully. In line with these two opposite relations to disaster, I suggest a theoretical distinction between two state formations: a providential state and a catastrophic state. This distinction is based on Agamben's concept of "bare life," which a sovereign may forsake by declaring an exception but which it may also save by taking extraordinary measures of protection or relief. The Article examines two aspects of the difference between the two state formations. From a formal point of view, it distinguishes and discusses two different notions of sovereignty, its authority, foundation, and legitimacy, along with two different understandings of the subjectivity of the state. These two conceptions involve and are intimately related to two distinct sets of theological presuppositions and two different conceptions of the political. From a chronological point of view, the Article sketches two diverging genealogies that go back to distinct, even if related, moments in the history of the modern West. Recognizing the fact that in certain historical moments these two genealogies were intertwined and that in our time this intertwinement has yielded a rapid process of hybridization, the Article claims that this process is not dialectical, and that the difference between the two genealogies should be maintained for theoretical and political reasons alike.

This paper presents a practical approach to the problem of estimating the size and location of the population likely to be affected in a natural or man-made (bioterrorist) disaster. It discusses the currently available sources of population data and details several methods for converting this data into geographic units appropriate for disaster preparedness and response. It also demonstrates how to estimate affected populations on-the-fly, in response to a disaster, and how to maintain updated data in preparation for future unplanned events. Examples implementing these methods are given, and their utility is compared in different situations.

Comments regarding Chief Hansen's letter to the editor regarding the article "A Critical Evaluation of the Incident Command System and NIMS."

Book review of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security by Christopher Cooper and Robert Block: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2006.

Book review of NIMS Incident Command System Field Guide by Jeff Jones, Division Chief; Tigard, OR: and updated review of Homeland Security Field Guide: A Pocket Reference for WMD & Terrorism Response by Jan Glarum, Eric Swanson, BBA, NREMT-P, and Eric S. Gaull, CEM; Tigard, OR. Both published by Informed Publishing, 2006.

Book review of Holistic Disaster Recovery: Ideas for Building Local Sustainability after a Natural Disaster.

Review of Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, by Charles Pena.

Crisis Management: Mastering the Skills to Prevent Disasters is an introductory work that outlines some primary processes utilized in business when developing hazard, risk and crisis management capabilities. Each chapter is dedicated to describing the basic function of individual components of a broad-based corporate hazard and crisis recognition, mitigation, response and recovery infrastructure. By integrating prevention, mitigation, response with recovery, Crisis Management is intended to define capacities that should be inherent within the operation of business so as to: 1) prevent incidents from occurring through surveillance, and 2) prevent incidences from transitioning into crises or disasters through response.

This is a book review article for the Advances in Homeland Security Series by Purdue University. The series consist of two volumes. Volume one is entitled The Science of Homeland Security. Volume two is entitled Guiding Future Homeland Security Policy. Amass F. S., Bhunia, A. K, Chaturvedi, A. L., Dolk, D. R., Peeta, S., and Atallah, M. J. Advances in Homeland Security Series: The Science of Homeland Security (Volume 1), West Lafayette, IN: Perdue University Press, 2006 227 pp, introduction, notes, bibliography, index (hardcover). Amass F. S., Chaturvedi, A. L., and Peeta, S. Advances in Homeland Security Series: Guiding Future Homeland Security Policy, West Lafayette, IN: Perdue University Press, 2006 152 pp, introduction, notes, bibliography, index (hardcover).

Disaster Response and Recovery: Strategies and Tactics for Resilience by David A. McEntire, University of North Texas Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.