Watson Events

Stephen Flynn -- Coping with Disasters and Terrorism: The Case for Building Societal Resilience

"Coping with Disasters and Terrorism: The Case for Building Societal Resilience," with Stephen Flynn, Professor and Founding Co-Director, George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security, Northeastern University.

View PDF: "Recalibrating Homeland Security"

Washington has been making a mess of homeland security. Coping with terrorism and disasters requires localized, open, and inclusive engagement of civil society, but the U.S. government has resisted asking and empowering civilians to do a better job withstanding, recovering from, and adapting to these risks. In fact, it has been placing a number of obstacles in their way. Citizens, in turn, must be willing to grapple with the periodic disasters they and their communities are likely to face and to make themseleves more resilient.

In the wake of recent events in the Northeast, Professor Flynn will also offer some preliminary reflections on what Hurricane Sandy should be teaching us about the need to bolster infrastructure and community resilience.


Stephen E. Flynn is the Founding Co-Director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security and Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University.

Dr. Flynn is the author of the critically acclaimed The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (Random House, 2007), and the national bestseller, America the Vulnerable (HarperCollins 2004). He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 9/11 he has provided testimony on twenty-eight occasions on Capitol Hill.

Location: Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street.