PUBPOL 3210

Catastrophe, Crisis, and Emergencies: Making Policy in the Middle of Disaster

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Many policy decisions are made in the middle of crisis and disaster, at short notice and under severe pressure. There are a variety of kinds of crises, from natural disasters to human-made ones, from international catastrophes to local ones, from slow-motion crises to split-second ones, and they all require different kinds of policy preparations and responses. To understand this kind of policy, this course will examine a variety of different kinds of crises, how they shaped the responses and the policy-making that came afterwards, and what kind of preparation was put in place for future crises. It will look at crisis leadership, emergency preparations, and disaster responses by examining a number of cases studies of catastrophes both modern and historical.

Distribution Requirements (HA-AG, SBA-AG), (HA-HE, SBA-HE)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP

Outcomes

• Students will be able to describe and discuss the various kinds of disasters and categorize them by type.
• Students will be able to analyze how policymakers have reacted to the various kinds of disasters.
• Students will be able to evaluate how successful various policy approaches have been in preparing for future disasters.

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