The spate of terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid has raised some significant issues for the public management of critical infrastructures. In many countries, privatizations in the 1980s and 1990s have transferred key elements of the critical infrastructure to private companies....

In recent years, we have witnessed a series of spectacular crises and disasters: 9/11, Madrid and London,the Asian tsunami, the Mumbai attacks, the implosion of the financial system - the world of crises and disasters seems to be changing. This special issue explores how these crises and...

This paper develops a framework for analyzing the political-administrative capacity of public authorities to respond to transboundary crises (such as pandemics, cyberattacks and prolonged critical infrastructure failure). To complement our traditional notion of capacity as a fixed set of skills,...

This chapter describes how authorities in Louisiana (governor Bobby Jindal and Baton Rouge mayor Kip Holden) coped with the effects of Hurricane Gustav. This was the first hurricane to hit Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. It hit land on Labor Day of 2008, missed New Orleans and hit Baton Rouge...

Some public organizations take on the qualities and characteristics of an institution. They become vessels for societal ambition, combining reliable performance with high levels of legitimacy. The functioning and effects of these highly institutionalized organizations are well researched. How...

The nation-state faces an increasing number of what we refer to as ‘‘transboundary threats.’’ A transboundary threat is characterized by the potential to cross geographical and functional boundaries. These characteristics outstrip the capacity of nation-states and national bureaucracies...

The European Union has become increasingly involved with protecting the security and safety of European citizens. The latest addition to this new policy space is critical infrastructure protection (CIP) at the EU level. A central role for the EU in guarding against infrastructural breakdowns and...

This paper focuses on the growing role of European Union (EU) agencies in the management of trans-boundary crises. It makes this development explicit, demonstrating that the emergence of multiple agencies with specific crisis preparation or response tasks has transformed the EU’s crisis...

Modern societies are widely considered to harbour an increased propensity for breakdowns of their critical infrastructure (CI) systems. While such breakdowns have proven rather rare, Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated the catastrophic consequences of such breakdowns. This article explores how...