Introduction
The book Disaster Security: Using Intelligence and Military Planning for Energy and Environmental Risks was written by Miriam Matejova and Chad M. Briggs and published in 2019. It discusses how analytical thinking can help people avoid calamities. This book examines examples of disasters that occurred at different times in history and what may be inferred from each one. Finally, the authors suggest a strategy to address environmental issues by relying on all the lessons learned. People need to understand how to use critical thinking to avert disasters since disasters cannot arise in a world without human intervention.
The Authors’ Approach to Disaster Assessment
How Disasters Are Caused by People
The authors of this book make a crucial distinction by not trying to make everything appear as if nature and other factors are to blame. The authors assert that there are no disasters without people’s involvement throughout the book. For instance, fatal floods are caused not just by changes in precipitation but also by various prior choices made about land use, urban planning, transportation infrastructure, and insurance (Briggs & Matejova, 2019). The authors do not regard the issue as something that just appeared out of nowhere.
The focus of the book, however, is not on the issues themselves – such as climate change, flooding, or hurricanes – but rather on how individuals respond to these disruptions. For example, the US Army predicted Hurricane Sandy would occur in 2012 back in 2010. (Briggs & Matejova, 2019). However, except for a small group of experts, nobody paid attention to the prediction. It illustrates how someone could disregard the possibility of disaster, referring to uncertainty. Many people suffered, and the nation lost significant capital due to the authorities’ disregard. Because of this, it is essential to consider potential catastrophe scenarios and develop a strategy to stop or avoid them. Although not all of the scenarios may be carried out, each one will teach something that humanity may use to overcome issues in the future.
Conclusion
To sum up, the book is great literature for approaching disaster security. It does not try to teach the right ways of dealing with the problems but instead attempts to learn from past experiences, identify the failures, and work on improvement. The book emphasizes the importance of predicting, creating scenarios, and thinking about the ways to solve them. I would suggest this book to risk assessment experts and average readers interested in how the human mind works.
Reference
Briggs, C. M., Matejova, M. (2019). Disaster security: Using intelligence and military planning for energy and environmental risks. Cambridge University Press.