Lawfare Archive: Juliette Kayyem on Dealing with Disasters
Summary
Juliet Kayam discusses her book, The Devil Never Sleeps, arguing that disaster planning must shift from preventing crises to minimizing their consequences. She explains the "paradox of preparedness" and uses examples like the Challenger explosion, Fukushima, and the Suez Canal blockage to illustrate how effective communication and fail-safe systems prevent cascading failures. Kayam emphasizes that accepting the inevitability of disasters allows leaders to focus on reducing "stupid deaths" and managing the immediate aftermath rather than solely on avoidance.
Topics discussed
Introduction: Recent disasters and guest Juliet Kayyem
Reframing disaster management: Left vs. Right of Boom
The pandemic as a case study in consequence minimization
Common patterns in disasters and 'stupid deaths'
The paradox of preparedness and the Y2K example
Organizational blind spots and the etymology of disaster
Building communication systems for crisis information flow
Ignoring experts: Challenger and Russian military logistics
Fukushima: Policy decisions and learning to fail safely
Super Bowl blackout: Planning for cascading losses
Tabletop exercises and leadership succession planning
Global supply chains: Suez Canal and historical adaptability
Conclusion: Allocating resources for inevitable disruptions
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