Eastern Kentucky University Encompass Online Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship A Call To Arms: The Militarization of Natural Disasters in the United States (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Role of the Military in Disaster Response in the U.S.
Several scholarly works have documented a heightened military involvement in responding to natural and man-made disasters. This is due to both the historical focus of the military on responding to domestic disasters and the recent impact of large-scale terrorist attacks on the U.S. territory. While retaining its primary role of safeguarding the country from external threats, the military has become one of the main partners of federal, state, and local agencies in disaster response operations, providing its available resources, logistical capacity, and operational services effectively used against both man-made and natural disasters. This article discusses the role of the military in responding to natural and man-made disasters and explores the historical involvement of military in disaster management.
A Tale of Two Storms: U.S. Army Disaster Relief in Puerto Rico and Texas, 1899-1900
Journal of Advanced Military Studies , 2022
This article argues that the disaster relief efforts following hurricanes in Puerto Rico in 1899 and Galveston, Texas, in 1900 represent a watershed in American military history. These two cases highlight a critical juncture where the U.S. Army became the lead federal agency in imperial and domestic disaster relief and established a precedent that lasted well into the twentieth century. By declaring martial law, directly overseeing relief efforts, and plugging into existing social hierarchies, the Army and local elites completely reconstructed the political, economic, and social order of both locales. As this was a relatively new role for the Army, they relied on the local social hierarchy as a matter of expediency because of the absence of any existing doctrine to guide their disaster relief efforts. These Army relief efforts culminated in fostering two antidemocratic governments: a colonial regime in Puerto Rico and the first commission-style government in Galveston that upheld Jim Crow policies that were eventually replicated throughout the United States.
Disaster Response in the United States is plagued by bureaucratic and political obstacles. This paper analyzes the complete history of disaster response in the United States from the 19th century to the present. Specific attention is given to the establishment of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. The conclusion offers one possible suggestion to improve American disaster response. is supposed to have defined insanity as expecting a different result after doing the same thing over and over again. …this definition more or less describes our approach to reforming the disaster relief program." (Miskel xi)
DEMS 3706 Assignment 2 – Examining Hurricane Katrina from the Three Perspectives.docx
The case study chosen for this paper is Hurricane Katrina. Though this disaster is well documented, this paper focuses more precisely on the identification, actions, and outcomes of affected communities, most notably the individuals from New Orleans directly impacted by hurricane, the informal support networks in identified Faith-Based Organizations, and the overall formal response through the prism of the National Flood Insurance Program and other property insurance options. The format of this paper will begin with a brief analysis of the three stakeholders to be reviewed, followed by a summary of their relationships, after which a comprehensive background will detail the nuances of the stakeholders in this disaster setting.
Constructing crime, framing disaster
Punishment & Society, 2009
This article argues that the media frames utilized in the first month after Hurricane Katrina legitimated punishment as disaster policy through lurid reports of individual crime. The application of prevailing state policies led to a quick embrace of punitive policing and incarceration, and journalistic routines ended up supporting this process. Although journalists openly expressed their disgust with state neglect, news conventions nonetheless criminalized much of the New Orleans population and suggested militarized policing and imprisonment as fundamental to restore order. Lacking credible sources, reporters relied on rumors and helped create a racialized 'looter class' that aided state efforts to regain control through existing policies of mass incarceration rather than mutual aid or state welfare. Even though various media outlets recanted the more extreme elements of this coverage, the tropes they employed created a lasting effect. Building off Stuart Hall et al.'s (1978) analysis of a moral panic over mugging in 1970s England, this article examines both the conventions and consequences of this crisis coverage. The result, I argue, bolstered the existing crisis of incarceration.
Disasters, Catastrophes, and Policy Failure in the Homeland Security Era 1
Review of Policy Research, 2009
The September 11 attacks triggered federal policy changes designed to influence emergency management in the United States, even though these attacks did not suggest a need for a wholesale restructuring of federal policy in emergency management. Instead, for several reasons, federal policy's emphasis on terrorism and emergency management significantly degraded the nation's ability to address natural disasters. The federal government sought to create a top-down, command and control model of emergency management that never fully accounted for, positively or normatively, the way local emergency management works in practice. The Obama administration will have to address the questions raised by the reorganization of federal emergency management responsibilities. While the context in which these changes have occurred is unique to the U.S. federal system, there are interesting implications for emergency management in nonfederal systems.