CRISIS AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT AS A NETWORK-ACTIVITY - DO WE HAVE TO EXTEND THE TERM 'VERNETZTE SICHERHEIT' IN GERMAN-SPEAKING COUNTRIES?

摘要

Fundamental changes often are indicated by the emergence of new terms or by a changed usage of existing terms. This paper points out, how the German term "vernetzte Sicherheit" more and more often is used with a new, different meaning and within a new, different context. The paper describes the emerging change behind it towards a networked way of civil crisis and disaster management. The objective of this paper is documenting these emerging new practices and making the new concepts available to a broader community of stakeholders for discussion. Furthermore, it intends to raise awareness for the changed usage of the term "vernetzte Sicherheit" in German-speaking countries as a focal point for the dissemination, further development and practical implementation of the ideas behind it. The paper starts with an identification of the relevant stakeholders and the changes experienced by those stakeholders. These changes drive crisis and disaster management towards a more networked activity supported by electronic systems for information exchange and collaboration. In the following sections, examples from concrete research projects on national and European level are given. The experiences suggest how crisis and disaster management as a networked activity can become reality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the German term "vernetzte Sicherheit", which has initially been coined in the context of civil-military collaboration in armed conflicts [1]. Today, the term is used more and more frequently for a new way of electronically facilitated collaboration between stakeholders involved in a civil disaster relief mission still within one territory. In the last section, three different strands of activities are pointed out which are continuing to establish this paradigm change: policy making and standardization, focused R&D and stakeholder involvement and awareness-raising.