PUBPOL 3210

Catastrophe, Crisis, and Emergencies: Making Policy in the Middle of Disaster

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Many policy decisions are made in the middle of crisis and disaster, at short notice and under severe pressure. There are a variety of kinds of crises, from natural disasters to human-made ones, from international catastrophes to local ones, from slow-motion crises to split-second ones, and they all require different kinds of policy preparations and responses. To understand this kind of policy, this course will examine a variety of different kinds of crises, how they shaped the responses and the policy-making that came afterwards, and what kind of preparation was put in place for future crises. It will look at crisis leadership, emergency preparations, and disaster responses by examining a number of cases studies of catastrophes both modern and historical.

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (HA-HE, SBA-HE) (HA-AG, SBA-AG)

Comments This is part of the Cornell in Washington (CIW) program.

• Students will be able to describe and discuss the various kinds of disasters and categorize them by type.
• Students will be able to analyze how policymakers have reacted to the various kinds of disasters.
• Students will be able to evaluate how successful various policy approaches have been in preparing for future disasters.

View Enrollment Information