Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
The City and the Stars inspires me about disaster diplomacy while examining two different worlds that rarely interact, except in crisis mode. In reality, we know enough about each world, and have the resources, to be able to limit disasters; but some groups in society are choosing not to do so.
What is disaster diplomacy?
Disaster diplomacy is the study of how and why disasters do or don’t create peace or conflict, studying both before and after a disaster. In terms of looking at what happens before, disaster diplomacy is looking at prevention, mitigation, and reducing losses, trying to deal with things which are in place before an event happens. In terms of looking at what happens after, we are looking at emergency response, recovery and reconstruction. Disaster diplomacy looks at the circumstances where peace and conflict are affected by disasters. The second part of disaster diplomacy is that if we don’t like the outcome, we look at how it would be possible to change the situation.
Tell me about your first book, The City and the Stars.
The City and the Stars is a book which is about trying to reconcile two different communities which serve as a metaphor for two different worlds. The way the reconciliation happens is through creating crisis, and trying to search beyond one’s own experiences and world view in order to create a better future out of that crisis. The protagonist is a creative and lonely individual who is forced to rebel against the indoctrinated way in which his society has been living. He is able to envisage the world beyond his community which no one else has had the courage to see. He discovers another ‘world’ and tries to reconcile the two disparate communities. In doing so, this provokes a crisis, from which he can then say that there is a need for both of us to work together in order to create a better world.
The relevance to disasters is that you see disasters as a crisis point, on the basis of which we can create a better future?
That’s exactly why The City and the Stars inspires me about disaster diplomacy. Disaster diplomacy is about examining two different worlds that rarely interact, except in crisis mode. In reality, we know enough about each world, and have the resources, to be able to limit disasters, but some groups in society are choosing not to do so. Disasters are created by society – the many choices made by governments and others, particularly in terms of resource allocation. Disaster diplomacy is about trying to bring two worlds together and use crisis points (or even the idea of a crisis), to make things better. Diplomacy is supposed to be about peace, although I realise that this isn’t always the case in practice, and that’s ultimately what we are aiming for.
The City and the Stars inspires me about disaster diplomacy while examining two different worlds that rarely interact, except in crisis mode. In reality, we know enough about each world, and have the resources, to be able to limit disasters; but some groups in society are choosing not to do so.
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Ilan Kelman is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research–Oslo (CICERO). His research interests include vulnerability, risk, islands, and disasters and developing practical solutions to the problems that arise in these areas. He is the co-founder and co-director of Risk RED, a non-profit organisation established to make disaster-prevention education more effective, and is co-founder of research projects www.disasterdiplomacy.org and www.islandvulnerability.org.
