POLS499—POLITICS OF DISASTER
Key Terms to Review for the Midterm Exam
FIRST HALF OF SEMESTER
Definitions
Jacobellis vs. Ohio
Eric Noji
Disaster
Hazard
Vulnerability
Intentionality
9/11
Rapid Onset
Slow Onset
Natural Hazard
Human-Caused Hazards
Volcanoes
Mt. Pelée
Earthquakes
Plate tectonics
Ring of Fire
Epicenter
Fault line
Seismic waves
Charles Richter
Richter scale
Modified Mercalli scale
Trauma
Tsunamis
Fukushima Disaster
Mudslide / Landslide/ Avalanche
Track
Scar
Bedrock
Zone of deposition
Fan
Vargas Mudslide
Vegetation
Forestation
Retaining Structure
Human Triggering
Zoning
Building Codes
Detection
Monitoring
Warnings
Rescue teams
Carrie Kahn
Tornadoes
Dopler Radar
Mobile homes
Moore, OK Tornado
Joplin Tornado
Tornado Outbreak Days
Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita
Fujita Scale
Tornado shelter
Global warming
Greenhouse gases
Tropical depressions
Tropical cyclones
Hurricanes
Pacific / Atlantic
Category 1-5
Typhoon
Super Typhoon
Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale
Hong Kong Observatory Scale
Tropical cyclone season
Inflow
Rainbands
Eye/Eyewall
Coriolis Effect
Inland flooding
Bangladesh Cyclone
Indianola, TX
Typhoon Haiyan
Benigno Aquino
USS George Washington
China
Industrial hazards
Technological hazards
Fires/ Wildfires/ Home fires
Cooking
Smoking
Iroquois Theater Fire
New London School Explosion
Cocoanut Grove Nightclub
MGM Grand Fire
Station Nightclub Fire
Fire brigades
Insurance
Private good
Sprinklers
Alarms
Exits / Exit signs
Von Duprin Panic Release Bar
Union Carbide / Bhopah
Yesmen
Hindenburg
Chernobyl
Air transportation crashes
Highway crashes
Railroad crashes
Commuter air crashes
Recreational boating
Oil Spills
Disease
Infectious / Non-communicable
Socio-economic
Social welfare
Social biases
Government function
Diabetes
Heart Disease
Stroke
Race / ethnicity
Pandemic
Justinian Plague
Bubonic Plague / The Black Death
Bubo / Lymph nodes
Spanish Flu
H1N1
Treaty of Versailles
Woodrow Wilson
German Reparations
HIV/AIDS
PEPFAR
World Health Organization (WHO)
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
Thomas Malthus
Green Revolution
Norman Borlaug
Population growth
Food Security / Insecurity
Hunger
Starvation
Malnutrition
Famine
Food prices
Weight-height ratio
Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC)
Monitoring / early warning systems
Famine Early Warning System
Ethiopian Famine
Somali Famine
SECOND HALF OF SEMESTER
Hazard Vulnerability
Risk reduction
Climate change adaptation
Poverty reduction
Environmental management
Prevention/Mitigation
Preparation
Relief
Recovery
Resistance
Resilience
Earthbag building
Presidential Disaster Declaration
Urban renewal
Disaster Relief Act (1950)
Harold Hagen
Federal Disaster Relief Act (1970)
Federal Disaster Assistance Admin.
FEMA
Means testing
Cost sharing
Stafford Act (1988)
Appropriations
Paul Farmer
Nég Mawon
Partners in Health
General Hospital
Acute on Chronic
Port-au-Prince
U.S.N.S. Comfort
Bill Clinton
Clinton Health Access Initiative
Toussaint Louverture
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Cange bridge
Françios Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC)
John Holmes
OCHA
Shelter cluster
MINUSTAH
Cholera
Minimalists
Maximalists
Sheri Fink
Memorial Medical Center
Hurricane Katrina
Dr. John Thiele
Dr. Anna Pou
Gina Isbell
Vincent Panepinto
L. René Goux
Susan Mulderick
Karen Wynn
Eric Yancovich
Jannie Burgess
Cheri Landry
Lori Budo
George G. Earl
Arthur O’Keefe
Emmett Everett
Ray Nagin
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Sandra Corday
Rodney Scott
Southern Baptist
Jim Crow
1927 Floods
Hurricane Betsy
Tenet Healthcare Corporation
LifeCare
Superdome
Sonali Deraniyagala
Steve
Vikram
Malli
Anita
Agi
Alexandra
Kristiana
Yala Safari Beach Hotel
Indian Ocean Tsunami
raan
Pakistan Quake
UNISDR
UNERC
UNDAC
Cluster
Ban Ki Moon
Valerie Amos
CERF
Red Cross/Red Crescent
Y2K
Acapulco Floods (2013)
Johnstown Flood (1889)
Mexico City Earthquake (1985)
San Francisco Earthquake (1906)
Meiji (Sanriku) Earthquake (1896)
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (2011)
Hurricane Sandy
Pompey Volcano
Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Agent Orange
Richard Kiy
Denise Ducheny
POSSIBLE ESSAY QUESTIONS:
- What is a “disaster”? What are the variations and potential areas of tension or disagreement in how disasters are conceptualized? How can we develop typologies to help better understand the nature of disasters?
- While it is common to think of disasters as naturally occurring and/or accidental in nature, experts who study disasters argue that this is not the case. Drawing on at least three different types of disasters, explain the underlying “causes” of a disaster?
- Why are disasters “political” and of interest to political scientists? What examples help to illustrate the politics and political nature of disaster?
- Why do some disasters generate greater public concern than others? Be sure to compare frequencies, vulnerabilities, and casualty rates, and provide examples.
- How do social, political, and economic factors such as, race, ethnicity, poverty, and governance play a role in the degree of human vulnerability to health epidemics? Why are some groups and societies more prone to disease than others? Provide examples at the domestic and international level?
- How do politics affect first responders like fire fighters in the United States? What are the best practices that they can use politically to be effective in protecting the public?
- What is an industrial or technological disaster, and what kinds are there? What steps do authorities recommend to keep safe in the event of a technological disaster or emergency?
- What happened in the Bhopah gas leak, and what did that disaster reveal about the dynamics and consequences of industrial and technological disasters?
- Discuss the dynamics of one of the following major disasters: the Kanto Earthquake, the San Diego Cedar Fire, the Cherynobl nuclear disaster, or the H1N1 outbreaks.
- What are the causes, dynamics, and consequences of famine? What are the best responses to minimize the catastrophic nature of a famine?
- Why have deaths from disaster increased in absolute terms but, in many cases, fallen in per capita terms?
- What are the specific disaster and crisis management planning concerns facing California, and the San Diego-Tijuana region specifically? Be sure to draw on the points raised by our guest lectures.
- Explain the events that transpired at Memorial Hospital during Hurricane Katrina from the perspectives of one doctor, one nurse, and one patient.
- How did Sonali Deraniyagala meet, marry, and lose her husband, and what were the consequences for Deraniyagala’s life thereafter?
- How and why has federal disaster management and relief changed in the United States over the last century?
- In what ways are the United States and the EU important players in international disaster relief efforts, and how effective are they in these efforts?
- What are the factors that determine giving in the aftermath of a disaster, and why?
- What are the concerns about the future expressed by the 1970s study called “The Limits of Growth” and how to do they apply today?
- What is the role of the United Nations in response to disasters, and what are the mechanisms that it has to assist affected countries?
- Discuss the dynamics of one of the following major disasters: Acapulco Floods (2013), Johnstown Flood (1889), or Mexico City Earthquake (1985).
- Discuss the dynamics of one of the following major disasters: San Francisco Earthquake (1906), Meiji (Sanriku) Earthquake (1896), or Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (2011).
- Discuss the dynamics of one of the following major disasters: Hurricane Sandy, Pompey Volcano, Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, or Agent Orange.