Responding to Catastrophes: U.S. Innovation in a Vulnerable World

Humanitarian crises pose an urgent challenge to policymakers. Some in the policy community may dismiss humanitarian response as—at best—an addendum to more traditional security concerns, yet the potential effects of these crises are daunting. The prospect of a terrorist attack in New York being closely followed by a hurricane in Houston and an earthquake in Los Angeles, for example, is far from unreasonable, and it is frightening to consider the consequences such a scenario would have on the U.S. government both at home and abroad. It is essential that decisionmakers in the United States begin to grapple as seriously with crisis management as they would with other security issues, which will require greater U.S. engagement on international catastrophe response. As a world leader, the United States has a serious interest in the effective management of humanitarian crises. Strong crisis management supports larger U.S. goals for global security, and in cases where the United States takes a visible leadership role, it can significantly bolster American prestige.1 In addition, effective humanitarian response is consistent with American values and provides the United States with an opportunity to balance realpolitik with international goodwill. Despite these opportunities, the United States often fails to coordinate crisis management effectively with international counterparts. This tendency is at least partially driven by a perception that international response mechanisms are burdened by chronic failures, as well as an occasional ignorance of the architecture of global crisis management among U.S. nongovernment response groups. Yet the global humanitarian community offers enormous resources to international emergencies, and a greater integration of U.S. and international efforts could significantly improve international crisis management. The United States has neither the will nor the capacity to manage every humanitarian crisis around the world, and the best strategy for enhancing American disaster risk management is to improve the existing global structures, as well as adjust U.S. involvement in those structures. The extraordinary current of innovation in American life offers initial solutions to some of the more intractable problems in crisis response. By looking to nontraditional humanitarian partners, such as the private sector and the military, the United States would be well positioned to lead reforms in global crisis management. New partnerships could significantly improve services for the vulnerable and support wider U.S. objectives by boosting American prestige.