The strategic challenges of humanitarian operations and crisis /disaster management (HOCM) have increased many folds in the current era because of increased scale and frequency of all types of disasters -natural, man made and industrial accidents. Three of the most devastating natural disasters (the Asian tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, and the Japanese earthquake) registered in the last 100 years took place during the last decade. There is an increasing awareness among researchers that an individual crisis/disaster is not an independent event. Rather, crisis management often involves the study of causal chains (for example, the 2011 earthquake in Japan). As a result, predictive capabilities for large systems of interrelated events must be developed. The consequences of natural disasters can evolve into ever greater humanitarian crises with increasing population growth and urban spread. The magnitude of these disasters has indicated the increased need for anticipating their occurrence and coordinated relief operations. All these disasters made apparent the need to understand better the challenges involved in preparing for and responding to disasters. The scope and reach of the crises have shown the light on strategic challenges.
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