TY - THES A1 - Hollis, Simon John T1 - A Rational Response to Natural Disasters? Explaining the global rise of regional disaster risk management N2 - Natural disasters pervade the certainty of social life. In a globalized world this truism increasingly calls for transnational solutions to prevent, prepare, and respond to these deadly disruptions. Regional Disaster Risk Management (DRM) has recently emerged to meet this concern. However, a number of observations question the expected motivation that compels states to cooperate in this important issue area. First, there has been only a moderate increase in the relative estimated economic costs from natural disasters in a majority of regional organizations, and the number of deaths related to natural disasters has consistently decreased. Second, after a tranquil period of cooperation from the mid 1970s, regional DRM rapidly developed and spread across the globe. This sudden rise in DRM cooperation seems difficult to explain if the costs from natural disasters have not considerably changed. Third, remarkable similarities appear in the goals and wording of regional DRM agreements despite the varied political, historical and cultural contexts that typify regional organizations. These empirical observations go against conventional expectations and question the core motivation of the state’s protection of its citizens. (...) T3 - Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School - 01/2012 KW - World Society Theory KW - Comparative Regionalism KW - Disaster Risk Reduction KW - Neoliberal Institutionalism KW - Analytical Eclecticism Y1 - 2012 N1 - Shelf mark: 2012D001 + 2012D001+1 ER -