A World of Regions

In an eye-witness account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Jack London poignantly noted: ‘[a]ll the shrewd contrivances and safeguards of men had been thrown out of gear by thirty seconds’ twitching of the earth-crust’ ([1906] 2003: 108). London’s observation reverberates a general truism that has increasingly come into sharp relief as today’s ‘shrewd contrivances’ augment transnational vulnerabilities in an interdependent environment. Regional DRM is a modern attempt to counter such disruptions of society. The last two decades have witnessed a substantial increase in regional activity on DRM, such as the formation of ASEAN’s agreement on disaster management and emergency response, the EU’s community mechanism on civil protection and the AU’s Africa regional strategy for disaster risk reduction. Over 30 regional organizations now cooperate on DRM with the aim of increasing the resilience of their member states and communities from natural hazards. But what role do these regional organizations play as disaster managers?