CRJ 19:2 is out now!

Our June 2024 issue is now live. The digital edition can be accessed on the CRJ website; whereas hard copies will be mailed out shortly. 

As 2024 has been designated the year of elections, this edition provides a contrasting view of election preparedness, business resilience, and e-voting across various countries. It also sheds light on how deepfakes and political propaganda, through disinformation campaigns, manipulate public opinion to determine election outcomes. 

Comment: Matthew Porcelli emphasises the importance of preparedness and communication in mitigating the risks associated with election-related civil disorder. Drawing from this, he writes that trust and continuous engagement between organisations and their security teams are crucial for effective crisis management. 

Elections: Thomas Lanthaler talks about how elections expose the need for a critical re-evaluation of democratic practices to genuinely reflect and respect the principles of participation and representation. While Jeannie Barr says that elections are distracting, resilience professionals must stay focused on preparing for and responding to crises, regardless of election outcomes.

Lucy Cuthbertson explores Estonia's e-voting system and its potential benefits, such as increased convenience and accessibility. She also examines the risks posed to election integrity through security vulnerabilities and difficulties in auditing digital votes. In the same vein, Keyaan Williams takes a look at how certain e-voting technologies necessitate the need for secure systems, without which there can be no integrity in the elections taking place.  

Lina Kolesnikova highlights the global significance of individual countries’ elections and urges the need to uphold electoral integrity. She writes: “Both local and foreign actors are capable of organising interference and disinformation campaigns. These actors may have purely political and societal objectives, such as dividing a society or promoting a specific agenda.”

Elton Cunha and Ricardo Giovenardi take the discussion over to Latin America: “To navigate a period of uncertainty when a new administration may have unstated strategies, your company must be well-prepared for the first year of the new government.” On the other hand, James Lodge writes about building business resilience amid turbulent voting seasons by creating strong incident response plans and working with government and business partners. 

Several articles in this edition focused on how information, or disinformation, plays a role during an election. Eric McNulty and Brian Spisak emphasise the importance of access to accurate information for crisis leaders to build preparedness and response ahead of the election year. Minhaj Aman highlights a distressing trend in several South Asian elections, the use of distorted information for manipulating political gains. Similarly, Stefano Betti writes about deepfakes turning into a normal tool in electoral contests worldwide. 

When it comes to business continuity, Dr Chris Needham Bennett reviews the slow evolution of business continuity and suggests that the discipline would benefit from more rigorous academic scrutiny and innovative thinking. On the other hand, Catherine Windust highlights the importance of using business continuity automation software, which can support the overall business continuity management system. 

Onto leadership: Matt Minshall talks about the importance of choosing the right leader for a functional hierarchy to maintain order in society. Minshall stresses: “People must lead or follow; the two go hand in hand and mutual support for both is vital for survival and progress.” Amanda Coleman complements this by adding that within people and institutions, there is a need for building trust: “A crisis or emergency response could potentially be disastrous if there is a lack of trust in the organisation handling it. As a starting point, people may not be listening to the emergency announcements and even if they do listen, they may be reluctant to act on what is being said.”

Mostafa Sayyadi and Michael Provitera talk about how effective leadership in corporate social innovation can provide more innovative solutions to solve social problems and bring about positive social change. In their second article, the authors write about how leaders in any organisation need to train their employees to think beyond their daily tasks and be adaptive in embracing change. 

What makes a crisis? Irene Proto takes a look at how the scale of a crisis can be amplified online based on how ‘newsworthy’ it is. Meanwhile, Amy Leete offers a discussion that should worry us all: What trails of data are we leaving behind for AI to consume about our personal lives? 

Onto response and mitigation: William Peterson reports on the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, which caused six deaths and an estimated USD 400 million in damages. 

Annabel Sofer reviews the humanitarian crisis mapping during Haiti earthquake to write on disaster response in the age of digital platforms, noting: “Since 2010, social media has undergone a drastic transformation, leading to the rapid dissemination of false information. This was exemplified in 2017 with Hurricane Harvey in the USA, when people shared a fabricated photo of a shark swimming on the highway alongside the cars.”

This issue also puts a focus on climate and hazards. Dr Haseeb Md Irfanullah writes that in recent years, human-induced climate change has transitioned from being a subject of debate to an undeniable cause of widespread loss and damage, evidenced by increased frequency and severity of natural disasters and slow-onset events. Meanwhile, Amelia McNeilly expands on her research on the role of sustainable building practices in post-hazard temporary housing and their importance for long-term resilience against future natural hazards in low and middle-income countries.

Lucy Cuthbertson offers a discussion on traditional hard-engineering solutions for coastal management, like seawalls, which are increasingly becoming inadequate in combating the complex phenomenon of coastal erosion exacerbated by climate change and human activities. 

In highlighting the role of art in building resilience, Patrick Duggan and Stuart Andrews write: “Murals are not messages. Their work is more subtle; contributing to an existing sense of place, murals inform practices of a place and change it physically and conceptually. While murals may exist in isolation, they can also operate within broader strategic endeavours.”

On Reforms: In talking about post-emergency health systems, Paolo Garonna notes that health is confirmed to be the most private good individuals possess and the most global public good we can think of, and greater efforts are needed for rehabilitation efforts. Roger Gomm reports on the National Protective Security Authority's ‘Behavioural detection – Best practice, guidance, and advice.’ 

Dr Jennifer Hesterman examines the surge in mass stabbings globally, and urges organisations and communities to expend resources to identify their root causes 
Book Review: Jeffrey Schlegelmilch and Dr Ellen Carlin explore their book Catastrophic Incentives: Why Our Approaches to Disasters Keep Falling Short to highlight misalignment of business models and incentive structures across sectors like politics, nonprofits, private industry, and academia, which hinder effective disaster management. 

Frontline: Luavut Zahid speaks to Sara Weston, founder of 911der Women. 

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