Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response
How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability
"With 85% of America's critical infrastructure in private hands, the American people - and America's economy - are not going to be safe without strong, collaborative action by the public and private sector.
Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response is thus a timely and important volume that is a must-read for anyone concerned about our nation's security."
LEE HAMILTON, President, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Vice Chair, 9/11 Commission
"; Break; Case 2: Echo ""This visionary book reveals the vulnerability of our systems which provide the framework for humanity to exist. The response to this millennium challenge can only be found in our capacity to demonstrate innovative collaboration, effective leadership, and courage. I strongly urge top decision makers to read this book; it provides the necessary guidance to go from words to action."
KLAUS SCHWAB, Founder and Chairman, World Economic Forum
"; Break; Case 3: Echo ""Industries that provide critical infrastructure are becoming more efficient, but more vulnerable.
This book introduces security externalities, a phenomenon that inhibits private investments that would make critical infrastructure services more resilient to potential disaster from any source. It calls not only for more leadership but for more realistic policies from both the private and the public sector."
THOMAS C. SCHELLING, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, 2005 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics
"; Break; Case 4: Echo ""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 that makes disasters even more disastrous."
BEN W. HEINEMAN, JR., Senior Fellow at Harvard's Law School and Kennedy School of Government, Former Senior Vice President and General Counsel, General Electric
"; Break; Case 5: Echo ""America must work hard to improve its responses to natural disasters and terror attacks. This book demonstrates that effective coordination with the operators of privately owned critical infrastructure is a vital part of that work, and offers guidance for progress."
U.S. Senator SUSAN M. COLLINS of Maine, Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate
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Cambridge University Press 2006, ($29.95, paperback; $59.99, hardcover)
506 pages, September 11, 2006; ISBN 0131435264
(download sample chapters)
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
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Last updated: September 28, 2006