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New: Lecture by Lewis Branscomb at Penn's Catastrophic Risk Regulation Seminar Series (Large File)

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On the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the public may ask: "What new catastrophes lie ahead? Are government and the private sector doing enough to reduce the risks of more such calamities?" All are aware that disasters disrupt critical services-such as fuel and power, food and water, communications and transportation, greatly increasing loss of both life and property and severely delaying recovery. Yet relatively little attention has been directed to critical service vulnerability.

The public depends on government to assure the provision of critical services, but more than 80% of the operation of these services lies in private hands. Government, in turn, is relying on market forces to induce the private firms that provide critical services to invest in making them more robust and resilient. Corporate leaders and academic experts, whose perspectives are presented in Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response, share the view that market forces alone will not reduce public vulnerability to large-scale service disruptions, and call for action by industry and government to reduce the growing vulnerability of the critical infrastructures on which our lives and economy depend.

Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response is the first book to comprehensively address the manner in which 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 under both normal and exceptional circumstances. The authors of the chapters in this volume are business leaders from multiple industries and experts in fields as diverse as risk analysis, economics, finance, engineering, organization theory, and public policy.

The book shows the necessity of deeply rooted collaboration between private and public institutions, and who should be accountable for the leadership necessary to bring them together so we eventually go from words to action.

The conclusion of Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response: How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability is that the nation will be ever more at risk until the private sector and public leadership produce a clear allocation of accountability and the creation of robust institutions through which new policies can be implemented. This is the only way our society can become safer while continuing to build its economy and improve the quality of public services, despite the inevitability of human error, natural disasters, and the threat of terrorism.

But this will come at a price: strong leadership, courage to act, and willingness to pay for more adequate protection. This visionary book provides concrete ways to do just that!

Editors:

Philip Auerswald
Lewis M. Branscomb
Todd M. La Porte
Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan

Contributing authors:

Jay Apt
Thomas Bowe
Lloyd Dixon
John Donahue
Jack Feinstein
Stephen Flynn
Robert A. Frosch
Sean Gorman
Geoffrey Heal
Michael Kearns
Paul Kleindorfer
Michael Kormos
Howard Kunreuther
Todd R. La Porte
Patrick Lagadec
Lester Lave
Brian Lopez
James Macdonald
Robert T. Marsh
Granger Morgan
Franklin Nutter
Daniel Prieto
Robert Reville
Emery Roe
Paul R. Schulman
Richard Zeckhauser

Last updated: September 28, 2006