This dissertation identifies for the first time those intergovernmental organizations and instances that deal with natural disaster mitigation and prevention, as well as the methods and procedures that they use to accomplish their mission. It also identifies the functional overlappings which these instances have had with each other during recent years. To this end the author has undertaken an exhaustive cross-sectoral organizational analysis which takes into account all of the essential UN agencies and UN-related military structures that deal with natural disaster reduction.
"Hellenberg breaks new ground in study of natural disasters, especially in pulling together the diverse roles that international governmental organizations, both within the United Nations System and outside, are playing in enhancing the capacity of states to lessen the impacts of natural disasters and to recover from them. This subject has become increasingly timely in view of the rather dramatic increases both in the incidence of natural disasters over the past two decades and in the casualties and damages resulting from them. These increases appear to be a consequence both of human-induced environmental changes, in particular climate change,
and of larger numbers of people living in harm's way, especially in developing countries." - Prof. Marvin S. Soroos - North Carolina State University, USA
This dissertation identifies for the first time those intergovernmental organizations and instances that deal with natural disaster mitigation and prevention, as well as the methods and procedures that they use to accomplish their mission. It also identifies the functional overlappings which these instances have had with each other during recent years. To this end the author has undertaken an exhaustive cross-sectoral organizational analysis which takes into account all of the essential UN agencies and UN-related military structures that deal with natural disaster reduction.
"Hellenberg breaks new ground in study of natural disasters, especially in pulling together the diverse roles that international governmental organizations, both within the United Nations System and outside, are playing in enhancing the capacity of states to lessen the impacts of natural disasters and to recover from them. This subject has become increasingly timely in view of the rather dramatic increases both in the incidence of natural disasters over the past two decades and in the casualties and damages resulting from them. These increases appear to be a consequence both of human-induced environmental changes, in particular climate change,
and of larger numbers of people living in harm's way, especially in developing countries." - Prof. Marvin S. Soroos - North Carolina State University, USA
