The Politics of Crisis Management

Dr. Arjen Boin is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University, Department of Public Administration. He is the author of Crafting Public Institutions (2001) and co-editor, with Rosenthal and Comfort, of Managing Crises: Threats, Dilemmas, Opportunities (2001). Professor Paul 't Hart is Professor of Public Administration at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University. His publications include Groupthink in Government (1997), Understanding Policy Fiascoes (1996), Beyond Groupthink (1997) and Success and Failure in Public Governance (2001). Dr Eric Stern is the Director of CRISMART, acting Professor of Government at the Swedish National Defence College as well as Associate Professor of Government at Uppsala University. He is the author of Crisis Decisionmaking: A Cognitive Institutional Approach (1999). Professor Bengt Sundelius is the Founding Director of CRISMART and Professor of Government at Uppsala University. He is Chief Scientist of the Swedish Emergency Management Agency and responsible for promoting research in the area of homeland security.

1. Crisis management in political systems; 2. Sense making: grasping crises as they unfold; 3. Decision making: critical choices and their implementation; 4. Meaning making: crisis management as political communication; 5. End games: crisis termination and accountability; 6. Learning from crisis and the politics of reform; 7. Dealing with crisis; A memo to public leaders.