IRRC No. 866
Governing catastrophes: security, health and humanitarian assistance
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Abstract
Recent catastrophes, and predictions of an increasing potential for more, have stimulated thinking about the best policy responses to these threats. This article explores how security concepts influence catastrophe governance. It considers how globalization affects thinking about catastrophes, describes ways in which catastrophes have been conceptualized as governance challenges and explains how health and humanitarian assistance experienced "securitization" in the post-Cold War period.