In an interview on Disaster Diplomacy

Your next book, An Enemy of the People , the play by Ibsen, is another interesting choice. Tell me about the book.

An Enemy of the People is set in a small town which has decided to build baths (spas) to bring prosperity to the community. It turns out that the baths are contaminated with pollution and there is a risk that the tourists who come and use the baths will get ill. The protagonist of the play identifies this problem and also identifies a solution, which would have a negative impact on the publicity for the town and which would cost a lot. As a consequence, the town turns against him – the people cannot deal with this crisis. Ibsen uses this situation to make quite a scathing attack on how people think and how governments think and how public opinion can be swayed.

This relates to this idea that people can think in the short-term way that you have been talking about?

The relationship to disaster diplomacy is that the town is not equipped to deal with this conflict. They miss the opportunity to build a long-term solution, trying to cover up the crisis rather than develop from it. Ibsen’s point is quite perceptive about the way that people deal with crisis and risk and importantly how societal structures deal (and do not deal) with crisis and risk. This relates to my work 120 years later, in that people fail for similar reasons to deal with these disasters waiting to happen.