Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

There are many reasons why over 90% of all nations have involved their military as the exclusive agent for disaster relief. They have logistic systems and capability that often does not exist in civil agencies in many countries. The US does it differently. Because disasters often involve sensitive issues of recovery, redevelopment, equity and at least an attempt to have the state and local governments do their share (often their inaction is the cause of the disaster) the federal government has largely designed a system administered by the states. Most governors are not happy with attempts in the US to hand off disaster relief to the military. It is true of course that in some cases funding of military capability given budget restrictions is a zero-sum game with respect to the civil agencies. Meaning, if the same monies went to the civil agencies you might even have a better system then the military could provide. In my experience, the military is largely employed for law enforcement presence and enhancement, even though restrictions of POSSE COMMITATUS exist in USA. This is a prohibition on criminal law enforcement activity by the military. Interestingly, DOD often freelances its disaster participation and discards it present plans even more often than the civil agencies. I account for this by the fact that DOD has heavy active-duty turnover.