Strategic Foresight III – The “Quiet Part”

2024-07-12T18:46:50+00:00

Strategic Foresight III - "The Quiet Part" Emergency Management Once Removed July 12, 2024 By Jim Mullen  “Strategic foresight’s” absence was evident on January 6, 2021. Warnings signs were clearly “missed. Outnumbered, heroic police officers held the line that day, preventing a coup. Must they stand alone next time? Did we learn anything at all? Can everyone in authority be relied upon to perform and behave as the laws of the nation require? The January 6, 2021 insurrection-rich environment’s  impact was confined to the US Capitol Region. Some members of Congress, many citizens from various walks of life, and a [...]

Strategic Foresight III – The “Quiet Part”2024-07-12T18:46:50+00:00

Strategic Foresight II

2024-06-13T20:25:30+00:00

The non-partisan federal Government Accountability Office (GAO ) is entrusted with responsibility “to investigate and oversee the activities of the executive branch, to control the use of federal funds….” Housed within GAO, the Center for Strategic Foresight analyzes trends that will likely impact the federal government and society in the next 5-15 years.

Strategic Foresight II2024-06-13T20:25:30+00:00

Strategic Foresight I: A Pathway to National Resilience

2024-06-06T22:11:08+00:00

The non-partisan federal Government Accountability Office (GAO ) is entrusted with responsibility “to investigate and oversee the activities of the executive branch, to control the use of federal funds….” Housed within GAO, the Center for Strategic Foresight analyzes trends that will likely impact the federal government and society in the next 5-15 years.

Strategic Foresight I: A Pathway to National Resilience2024-06-06T22:11:08+00:00

Not Nearly Enough

2024-04-19T16:33:48+00:00

Even predictable natural disasters frequently catch elected officials by surprise. A discouraging number of elected  officials and senior staff act as if  foreseeing and managing potential disaster impacts is a job for “another budget cycle.” So what are they doing in the meantime? Not nearly enough”.

Not Nearly Enough2024-04-19T16:33:48+00:00

What Goes Around…

2024-03-19T21:38:40+00:00

The Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) program has long been the life’s blood of state and local government’s ability to prepare, mitigate, respond, and recover from disasters.

What Goes Around…2024-03-19T21:38:40+00:00

Whodunnitt!

2024-03-19T20:04:50+00:00

WHODUNNITT! By Jim Mullen I have observed the renewal of a “debate” of sorts that seems to preoccupy some emergency management academics and practitioners: aren’t most disasters man- made and not ”natural?” -an interesting proposition if there weren’t more pragmatic concerns for emergency managers. We could trace our problems all the way back to the Original Sin, but I prefer focusing on mitigating our hazard vulnerabilities. Speaking recently to University of Washington graduate students about hazard mitigation, I described Seattle Project Impact’s (SPI) success at illuminating the benefits of confronting known hazards (earthquake in Seattle) through a grass roots, whole-community [...]

Whodunnitt!2024-03-19T20:04:50+00:00

History Should Matter to Emergency Managers – Feb 2022

2022-02-08T20:40:17+00:00

History Should  Matter to Emergency Managers By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed My recent blog entries, based mainly on my own "history" in emergency management and public safety roles, have warned that failure to acknowledge and prepare in advance for disruptions to foundational elements of our society could pose serious problems when an actual crisis occurs. Last year I observed, well before the fact, that the peaceful transfer of power, a symbol of our nation's unity (no matter how disappointing the outcome to the losing side), might be challenged violently by those espousing unfounded theories about the fairness of [...]

History Should Matter to Emergency Managers – Feb 20222022-02-08T20:40:17+00:00

1/6 – A Year Later – January 2022

2022-02-08T20:37:55+00:00

1/6 – A Year Later By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed January 6, 2022 Twenty years from now, historians will no doubt exhaustively parse the meaning of January 6, 2021’s insurrection, attempted coup, rebellion, the act of sedition (pick your descriptive term). In 2021, I offered my recollections/reactions on the 20th anniversary of two major events – the Nisqually Earthquake and the 9/11 attacks. I will go out on a limb (just a bit!) and suggest that in 2041 I probably will not write a piece remembering 1/6/21 (I’ll be 94 or hope to be!). It is way too [...]

1/6 – A Year Later – January 20222022-02-08T20:37:55+00:00

Interdependencies – November 2021

2021-11-09T21:14:53+00:00

Interdependencies by Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The 1950’s health crisis was a crippling and killer disease, polio, that parents feared every time their children complained of headaches, tiredness, stomach pain, etc. Once developed, polio vaccines were quickly embraced, administered in schools; that health crisis was abated.  We depended on and trusted medical science to free us from polio. In that same era, Cold War science fiction movie scriptwriters - largely to avoid “Red Scare” condemnation promoted by conspiracy theorists of that day - created “otherworldly” threats, requiring that the nations of the world unite to “save the planet”  [...]

Interdependencies – November 20212021-11-09T21:14:53+00:00
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