Suchergebnisse

Applying a leadership–task perspective within the context of the Greek sovereign debt crisis (2009–12), the study finds that the imperatives of short‐term crisis management conflict with the ability of Greek leaders to effectively implement long‐term reforms. Electoral gains, crisis duration, centralized decision‐making, and the degree of external actor involvement explain the choice between credible response and effective recovery. Despite beneficial effects, the activation of external stakeholders ultimately weakens the impetus for reform. The study has implications for political leadership and EU crisis management.

This report inventories the crisis management capacities of the European Commission, Council of Ministers of the European Union, and the European Council. It responds to a central concern in the Transcrisis project: that the 'institutional capacities in the three institutions need to be better measured in terms of how they contribute to preparation, response, and recovery' (Transcrisis proposal, p. 34). Capacities are defined in terms of politico-administrative features that facilitate the pursuit of seven tasks of effective crisis management, defined by the project as: detection, sense-making, decisionmaking, coordination, meaning-making, communication and accountability. Investigating capacities in seven issue areas, we reveal a host of emerging capacities in recent years (roughly 200 in total). Some of these capacities were expected, others are surprising. When compared with previous studies, the results show intriguing trends in how, where and in what forms capacities have evolved in recent years. While this report serves as a stand-alone deliverable with its own essential findings, it also provides the foundation for further exploration of effectiveness, legitimacy and leadership across Transcrisis subprojects.

Recent studies have found that the European Parliament (EP) had limited substantive influence on the European Union's response to the European debt crisis. It has been argued that Parliament compensated this loss by expanding its procedural power in crisis legislation; that is, its ability to hold the implementing institutions to account. In this study, we systematically assess the nature of parliamentary accountability and the conditions under which the EP has been successful at increasing its oversight powers. We do so by using new data on the accountability provisions included in concluded economic and financial legislation, scrutinized by the EP between 2009 and 2016. We find that Parliament has been more likely to gain oversight powers in crisis legislation, package deals, and salient legislative files. Our findings provide a more nuanced picture of Parliament's inter-institutional gains and losses in recent years and add to our understanding of the EP's account-holding role.

The present TransCrisis WP5.2 deliverable chapter reports the underway study of the response of the leaders of the European Union (EU) institutions to the inflow of irregular migrants to Europe since 2011. The alarming 700% increase in the number of people crossing into the EU without a permit in 2011 was perceived by many Europeans as a phenomenon which would trigger a crisis across the external EU borders and the borders between the EU member states (MSs). Consequently, the EU leaders were called upon to respond and develop a strategy of trans-boundary crisis management. This paper is divided into three parts – followed by a conclusion – which are structured as follows: The first part gives definitions for the phenomenon and the response, places the European migration crisis in the context of global migration flows and discusses the EU administration's approaches in its attempts to manage the crisis. The second part of this paper discusses the TransCrisis framework for the analysis of the European migration crisis by specifically looking at the scenario methodology that has been adopted in the current research and how it enables the analyst to assess the effectiveness and legitimacy of the management actions used by the acting authorities. In the third part of this paper the scenario methodology discussed in the previous section is then used to analyse the EU leaders' response to the crisis. Finally, in the Conclusions section, propositions with regards to the assessment of the management actions are given along with some recommendations to the management leaders (these being strictly provisional pending the completion of this WP study).

Decision 1082/2013 on Serious Cross-border Health Threats (Health Threats Decision) was adopted in 2013 with the aim of preparing for and responding to serious health threats. In this legislation, the European Union adopts an "all-hazards" approach which strongly relies on the exchange of information as a driver of regulatory activities. This article first demonstrates that the electronic systems of information exchange constitute a key tool in EU Health Crisis and Disaster Management ("EHCDM"). Second, it identifies the distinctive features of these mechanisms in the EU context: the reinforcement of a statutory policy shift towards securitisation of public health, the peculiarity of the EU composite administrative procedures as well as the facilitation of the quality of the sense-making activities. Finally, the article uncovers the possible problems which may affect the adequate functioning of EHCDM and argues the routes for further research. The piece links legal analysis with the interdisciplinary conceptual lens to offer an important contribution to closer characterisation of the EHCDM as a field in its own right together with a better understanding of the EU public health law and administration in the context of transboundary crisis management and health security governance.

AbstractBefore the COVID‐19 pandemic, infectious disease experts had postulated that the next pandemic is only a matter of time, and Finland, among other nations, had prepared for it. Yet the COVID‐19 pandemic crossed the customary political, functional, and temporal boundaries of crisis management to a surprising degree. This study analyses pandemic preparedness among Finnish infectious disease experts at the central government level before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic (2017–2021). The study is based on interview material, participant observation in the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare's infectious disease unit in 2017, and health security‐related document analysis. By analyzing expert perceptions of preparedness in two points of time, the study provides insights on the challenges that increasingly transboundary crises have posed for preparedness efforts. The experts perceived that pandemic preparedness would benefit from a more generic approach to planning and from more comprehensive risk assessments and policy advice. The analysis shows that Finnish crisis management had overlooked the extent of transboundedness of present‐day crises and is lacking consideration of how crises turn into chronic conditions that deplete capacities over time. The crisis man.agement regime needs to develop structures to better analyze systemic risks and to extend its timeframe to cover long‐term crises.

AbstractSetbacks—unanticipated, unwanted, and often sudden checks on moving forward—are common in crisis prevention. Managing setbacks, however, is rarely discussed. Even less discussed is the central role that setback management can play in preventing transboundary crises across interdependent critical infrastructures for electricity, water, transportation, and financial services. With a focus on the ongoing financial crisis and on strategies for resilience and anticipation, the article draws out implications for crisis prevention as the first, rather than last, line of defense in managing future crises.

AbstractWhat makes a well‐functioning governmental crisis management system, and how can this be studied using an organization theory–based approach? A core argument is that such a system needs both governance capacity and governance legitimacy. Organizational arrangements as well as the legitimacy of government authorities will affect crisis management performance. A central argument is that both structural features and cultural context matter, as does the nature of the crisis. Is it a transboundary crisis? How unique is it, and how much uncertainty is associated with it? The arguments are substantiated with empirical examples and supported by a literature synthesis, focusing on public administration research. A main conclusion is that there is no optimal formula for harmonizing competing interests and tensions or for overcoming uncertainty and ambiguous government structures. Flexibility and adaptation are key assets, which are constrained by the political, administrative, and situational context. Furthermore, a future research agenda is indicated.

In a world facing a growing water crisis, conflicts regarding water sharing and environmental issues are expected to grow, especially in transboundary river basins, where 40% of the world's population lives. This book represents one of the first attempts to bring together methodologies and analytical tools from socio-economic, international policy, engineering, and water management specialists dealing with transboundary water resources. The book is divided into three parts. Part I introduces state--of-the-art concepts in institutional policy and conflict analysis. Part II presents engineering approaches and models for transboundary water management and conflict resolution. Part III analyzes cases in international river basins and enclosed seas

Pan-European legislation stimulates international cooperation to overarching challenges of large carnivore management across jurisdictions. We present an analysis for current transboundary brown bear (Ursus arctos) population management in Croatia and Slovenia. Slovenia's bear management attempts aimed to reduce human-bear conflicts, by limiting the size and distribution of the bear population, with a relatively frequent use of intervention shooting. In contrast, fewer conflicts occur in Croatia and bears have been traditionally managed as a valuable game species, with heavily male-biased trophy hunting. On average 9% of the estimated bear population was removed annually in Croatia and 18% in Slovenia for the years 2005e2010. In Croatia, a greater proportion of adult males were shot than in Slovenia (80% vs 47% of total hunted males, respectively). We model a scenario for the shared panmictic population and two scenarios assuming that Croatian and Slovenian bear populations were spatially closed. When isolated, each countries' policies lead to potentially undesired management directions. The Slovenian bear population showed a stable or slightly decreasing trend that maintained its sex and age structure, while the Croatian bear population showed an increase in size but with a possible lack of older male bear. The panmictic scenario showed that different management policies buffered each other out with the overall combined population trend being slightly increasing with a sustained age/sex structure. The recent geopolitical refugee crisis has led to the partial erection of border security fencing between the two countries. Our data illustrate how the impacts of constructed fencing put in place to address border security issues may also impact the fate of Europe's bear populations and other wildlife species that use shared ecosystems

AbstractStreet‐level bureaucrats are often grassroots officials, and they are regarded as passive practitioners of policy with no authority to change policy or innovate, while policy entrepreneurs are usually high‐level officials. Based on observations of China's responses to two national crises, this study found that the times do make a hero. When acting as innovative frontline technocrats, major transboundary crisis practitioners, and management savvy operators within the top‐down bureaucracy, street‐level bureaucrats can become policy entrepreneurs. To innovate and drive policy change, street‐level policy entrepreneurs will adopt innovative strategies. They will make efficient use of their expertise and discretion, integrate various resources, strive for attention from superiors, consolidate their achievements, and expand their influence.

AbstractThe field of crisis and disaster studies has proliferated over the past two decades. Attention is bound to grow further as the world negotiates the prolonged challenges of the Covid‐19 pandemic. In this review, we provide an overview of the main foci, methods, and research designs employed in the crisis and disaster research fields in the period of 2001–2020. The review documents that the focus and methods used have not changed much over time. Single case studies and exploratory research prevail, the focus has shifted from preparedness to response, and methodological diversity is limited, but gradually increasing. Future challenges are to understand transboundary crisis management and creeping crises. Advancing the field calls for our community to put more effort in drawing lessons beyond the single case to uncover comparable and universal patterns that connect between events or phases, which help to theorize the multifaceted nature of crisis and disaster management.

Transcrisis aims to develop a solid understanding of the role of leaders in managing transboundary crises, and the requirements for ensuring an effective and legitimate crisis response. In addition to material and institutional requirements, leaders' policy ideas, peoples' preferences and public discourses play an important role in many of the seven phases of crisis management identified in this project, like for instance in the phase of detection, coordination, and especially meaning making and communication. Establishing the precise nature and effects of these 'soft' but influential factors in crisis management is notoriously difficult, for ideas, preferences and discourses are intangible phenomenon that cannot be observed directly (Fiske & Taylor 1991; Risse 1994). To be able to study these phenomenon and their effects on the effectiveness and legitimacy of crisis management, Transcrisis will make use of a method that was specifically designed to analyse such ideational factors: the method of Comparative Cognitive Mapping (CCM). CCM is a well-developed technique that has been successfully applied in many fields of study (Axelrod, 1976; Bougon, Weick & Binkhorst 1977; Curseu, Schalk & Schruijer 2010; Princen & Van Esch forthcoming; Van Esch 2012; 2014; Young & Schafer 1998). It may provide insight in the ideas and preferences of the various leaders involved in transboundary crisis management, but has also been used to study discourses and the way citizens think about the causes of, and potential solutions to crises. Through its various modes of analysis, CCM also enables a comparison between actors' and the evolution of ideas and discourses over time. As such, CCM provides an useful technique to apply in the various case-studies within the Transcrisis project and can be combined with techniques that provide insight in the material and institutional requirements for effective and legitimate crisis management. This guideline will provide an overview of the CCM technique as well as some basic ...

The parallel universe of cyberspace, created by computer networks, ones, and zeros, has changed the rules of the game. It would be inevitable for crisis management research to remain unaffected by the new challenges arising. The present article delves into the underexplored concept of cyber crises, by initiating an academic problematization of crisis conceptualization. Drawing from transboundary crisis management theory, it examines two major cyberattacks, the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2016 hacking of the DNC, and explores an empirical puzzle: why are these cases not characterized as crises even though they fit already existing definitions? The article contributes to the theory of transboundary crises by shedding light on previously overlooked cyber crisis characteristics and attempting to propose a definition of cyber crises. The way we perceive crises has a direct impact on how we manage them. Broadening the research agenda and understanding the concept of a cyber crisis could pave the way for a more effective and proactive response to new threats, which is what the following pages attempt to demonstrate.