7.1.0 How Should We Respond to the Next Global Terrorist Attack or Natural Disaster Event

Abstract

AbstractDuring the past few years, natural disasters including the major earthquakes in Pakistan, the Tsunami floods of Indonesia, and the hurricanes and destruction in New Orleans, LA and the Gulf Coast region of the United States have caused major loss of life, injury and significant loss of property.During the same period, insurgent attacks in Iraq, subway bombings in London, fire attacks on the city of Paris, and continued threats of terrorists throughout the world have placed life at risk.Terrorism is the systematic use of violence and force as a means of coercion through fear and intimidation. As we have seen since World War II and experienced first hand since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the calculated murder of political personalities has given way to the random killing of innocent people and civilian populations.Natural disasters are perhaps even more threatening. Are we building systems and responding in a way that permits these communities to respond properly and be resilient to these kinds of events? How can the discipline of systems engineering assist in preparing for, responding to, recovering from and mitigate against the risks of natural disasters and terrorist events.Since September 11, 2001, INCOSE through its Anti‐Terrorism International Working Group (ATIWG) has focused the principles, techniques, and practices of systems engineering on how to reduce and eradicate international terrorism. We have taken this opportunity to expand emergency preparedness efforts to natural disasters as well.Through the ATIWG sponsoring of panels at previous INCOSE symposia (2002–2007), writing papers for publication (2003), a tutorial (2004), an Insight Issue (2006) and working group activities, the systems engineering community has discussed the application of collaborative engineering environments, simulation and modeling, religion, system solutions to defend against terrorism, psychology, and root causes of terrorism to address the vulnerabilities of systems as well as the attack responses to threats.This panel continues the INCOSE application of systems engineering to these international problems by discussing the proper responses, recovery and resiliency of society and the systems it builds to natural disaster events and terrorist attacks.