THE ROLE OF REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT: A STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL RESILIENCE
| Author | Piotr Matczak |
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12229 |
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
doi : 10. 1111/p adm .12229
REVIEWS
THE ROLE OF REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN DISASTER RISK
MANAGEMENT: A STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL RESILIENCE
Simon Hollis
Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 242 pp., £65.00 (hb), ISBN: 978-1-137-43929-1
The engagement of states in regional organizations dealing with disasters is a relatively
new phenomenon. Simon Hollis’s book looks at the intersection of globalization processes
(and the role of a sovereign state), security, and environmental risks (and resilience). It
investigates how regional organizations can contribute to natural disaster risk manage-
ment. The analysis starts from the 1970s, when such initiatives emerged, and presents
the evolution of regional organizations until 2009. Although disaster risk management
has not been the major sector for regional cooperation, the book clearly shows that it has
been gaining in importance. The actual content of these activities has not previously been
comprehensively investigated. In the book, ten regional organizations, representing major
parts of the world (Asia, Europe and the Americas) and a variety of political traditions and
types of risks, are analysed.
The book focuses on the development of regional organizations and on the factors inu-
encing their consolidation. For this purpose, Hollis applies two complementary theoretical
perspectives: neoliberal institutionalism and world society theory. These two frameworks
organize his effort to explain what motivates states to cooperate in regional organizations
and at which level of engagement.
To dene a level of organizationaldevelopment is not an easy task. Hollis uses Qualita-
tive Comparative Analysis and fuzzy sets to identify dimensions of organizations’ forms
and activities. His approach allows the attribution of precise values to characterize organi-
zations and to pursue further,explanatory analysis on a solid, numerical base. His analysis
enables denition of the level of cooperation ranging from a nascent to a more advanced
form. Although regional organizations tend to consolidate, in some cases this process
appears to be stronger than in others.
The period 1970–2010 is divided into four decades to detect the dynamics of regional
cooperation. Based on a rigorous analysis of primary documents, Hollis shows that until
the end of the 1990s the level of activity was low, and development occurred later.
The book offers two layers to the reader.One layer presents the argument in an inspiring
and fresh manner. The next layer allows readers to dig deeper into the background of the
data by consulting the appendices and allows for a critical account of data use and analysis.
The author formulates a variety of hypothetical reasons governing a state’s willing-
ness to engage in cooperation based on the above-mentioned theoretical perspectives.
Neoliberal institutionalism suggests a rational motivation of the states to engage. States’
readiness for cooperation is driven by four main factors: interdependence (mutual expo-
sure of the states to a disturbance); asymmetrical risk (variation of impacts between
members of an organization); threat expectation (expected level of future costs of disas-
ters); and intra-regional power (presence of a regional leader). Hollis meticulously and
Public Administration Vol.94, No. 1, 2016 (276–284)
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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