Introduction to Emergency Management, Third Edition

***** Introduction to Emergency Management, Third Edition. By George D. Haddow, et al. Published By Elsevier/Butterworth Heinemann; available from ASIS, item #1769, 703/519-6200 (phone), www.asisonline.org (Web); 474 pages; $60 (ASIS members), $66 (nonmembers).

Introduction to Emergency Management is an updated edition of a seminal text on emergency management. It provides a comprehensive overview of the history, principles, and disciplines that constitute emergency management, and firmly situates emergency management within the broader context of hazards (including terrorism), risk assessment, and the future of the specialty.

The text advocates an all-hazards approach to the disciplines of emergency management (mitigation, response, recovery, preparedness, and communications) and provides a robust template for understanding and organizing these activities. Including communications as a fifth core discipline of emergency management is astute and helpful to professionals and students, due to the confluence of media, private ownership of infrastructure assets, and our culture’s consumer orientation.

Extensive discussion of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) from the now-retired National Response Plan adds to an earnest, if necessarily critical, appraisal of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security.

The book takes a refreshingly broad approach to mitigation, including an expansive section on tools. Discussions of land-use planning, financial incentives, and structural controls are among the topics that demonstrate both the scope of enterprise emergency management and the comprehensiveness of this volume. A dedicated chapter on terrorism offers needed oversight and insight into integrating this 21st century hazard into operations and preparedness.

Especially welcome in this global age is the chapter on international disaster responses. The coherent description of national, international, and nongovernmental organizations and agencies charged with responding to major disasters, and the discussion of their activities, are illuminating.

Throughout the text, critical thinking is directed through question sets that clearly challenge students to apply principles to actual events and local contingencies. Each chapter features case studies, and in-text supplementary materials that demonstrate the power of applying emergency management principles and the consequences of failing to do so.

Some of the materials presented in chapter tables, insets, and case studies are available on the Web, but they are organized here for easy accessibility and to good effect. The compiled materials strongly reinforce the authors’ authoritative and well-articulated discussion of the principles involved in the dynamic range of activities that fall within emergency management.

The text’s authority is reinforced in the foreword by respected former FEMA Director James Lee Witt. The appendix has an extraordinary case study of the response to Hurricane Katrina constructed from compiled documents, including impact indicators, lessons learned, and an extensively articulated timeline as well as excerpts from White House, U.S. Senate, and other sources on the catastrophe and response.

Designed as an introductory text for undergraduates and graduate students, this book could serve as a solid primer for anyone interested in a career with emergency management responsibilities.

Reviewer: Robyn R. Mace, Ph.D., CPP, is a specialist at Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice researching supply chain security and counterfeiting and teaching in the school’s Homeland Security Certificate program. Mace was the first principal planner with the Jersey City Police Department and has extensive public and private sector consulting and training experience. She is a member of ASIS International.