In this groundbreaking book, long-time expert and scholar in the field of disaster management, Richard Sylves, comprehensively surveys the field of emergency management while building on his original research and sharing his insider knowledge. Providing much needed synthesis of the field's major findings, scholarship, and current developments, Sylves structures the book with an analytical framework that focuses on the challenge of effective intergovernmental relations - both across levels of government and across types of disasters - to guide readers through instructive and important political history as well as recent crises.Whether for an undergraduate studying the topic for the first time or a practitioner looking for professional development, "Disaster Policy and Politics" will prove to be a highly readable, informative text and handbook aimed at laying a foundation of knowledge and know-how. Ten chapters offer, among other topics:a contextual history of disaster policy and politics; a discussion of global issues and influences; an exploration of the politics of planning and funding for the next disaster; and, a look to the future, to where emergency management goes from here, including its maturation into a profession. A valuable learning resource available with this book is a website sponsored by the Public Entity Risk Institute that tracks presidential disaster declarations issued for every state and county from 1953 through 2006.

Author Biography

Richard Sylves is professor of political science at the University of Delaware. He has served on a National Academy of Science, National Research Council panel, and he has done funded and unfunded research for FEMA. He served three years as an appointed member of the National Academy of Science Disaster Roundtable. His books include The Nuclear Oracles; Disaster Management in the United States and Canada: Politics, Policy, Administration, Study and Instruction of Emergency Management; Cities and Disaster: North American Studies in Emergency Management (with William Waugh); and Homeland Security and Emergency Management: A Public Budgeting Perspective.