A critique of emergency management policy: recommendations to reduce disaster vulnerability

The problems currently evident in emergency management give ample reason to reflect upon the direction of this profession in the USA. This paper evaluates the founding principles upon which this profession was based in the 1980s. It then highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the sustainability school that appeared a decade later. After illustrating the need for and problems associated with homeland security, this paper puts forward the concept of vulnerability management. This policy guide is based on the notions of liability reduction and capacity building, and has close relation to increasingly popular terms such as risk, susceptibility, resistance and resilience. This paper concludes with recommendations on how to implement a policy of vulnerability management.