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International Relations *

A guide to databases and scholarly online sources that support conducting research in international relations and comparative politics.

Specialized Research Handbooks

SPECIALIZED RESEARCH HANDBOOKS

Handbooks are useful for obtaining background information about contemporary theories, concepts, issues, events, or topics and for understanding how scholars have examined the use of disaster relief and humanitarian aid. These handbooks are available either electronically and/or located on the book shelves in the Medicine Crow Center Library for International and Public Affairs.

Chouliaraki, Lilie, and Anne Vestergaard. Routledge Handbook of Humanitarian Communication. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021.
A comprehensive guide to research broadly focused on communication that presents human vulnerability as a cause for public concern and encompasses communication with respect to humanitarian aid and development as well as human rights and "humanitarian" wars. The Handbook brings into dialogue these diverse fields, their theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches as well as the public debates concerning the centrality of media and communications to understanding of humanitarianism as an agent of transnational power, global governance and cosmopolitan solidarity. It consolidates existing knowledge and maps out  interdisciplinary knowledge production on media, communication and humanitarianism.

Eslamian, Saeid, and Faezeh Eslamian, eds. Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience: New Frameworks for Building Resilience to Disasters. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021.
This volume discusses how to measure and build disaster resilience at society’s capacity, drawing upon individual, institutional and collective resources to cope with and adapt to the demands and challenges of natural disaster occurrences. The book will serve as a guide, outlining the key indicators of disaster resilience in urban and rural settings, and the resources and strategies needed to build resilient communities in accordance with the targets of the Sendai Framework. Readers will learn about multi-risk reduction approaches using computational methods, data mining techniques, and System Thinking at various scales, as well as institutional and infrastructure resilience strategies based on several case studies.

Jigyasu, Rohit, and Ksenia Chmutina, eds. Routledge Handbook on Cultural Heritage and Disaster Risk Management. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2024.
This handbook provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the intersections between cultural heritage and disaster risks. It serves as a reference to key concepts and policy arena that disaster risk management and cultural heritage currently operate. With twenty-two contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in the field, chapters explore the various contexts for cultural heritage and disaster risk management, illustrated through case studies from around the world. The book explores a wide range of topics and themes, such as climate change, conflict, urbanization, the role of community and explores the relationships with a range of sectors such as governance and policy, finance, infrastructure, shelter, and urban planning. It also presents critiques on some of the issues that are often taken for granted, including technocratic approaches, nature/culture binary, the romanticization of traditional knowledges and the role of recovery and reconstruction. Insights into the future are also presenting, concluding with a detailed agenda of proposed action to be taken in the field.

Marshall, John Travis, Susan S. Kuo, and Ryan Rowberry, editors. The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Law and Policy: Risk, Recovery, and Redevelopment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
This century's major disasters from Hurricane Katrina and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown to devastating Nepalese earthquakes and the crippling volcanic eruptions and tsunamis in Tonga have repeatedly taught that government institutions are ill-prepared for major disaster events, leaving the most vulnerable among us unprotected. These tragedies represent just the beginning of a new era of disaster, an era of floods, heat waves, droughts, and pandemics fueled by climate change. Laws and government institutions have struggled to adapt to the scope of the challenge; old models of risk no longer apply. This handbook provides timely guidance, taking stock of the field of disaster law and policy as it has developed since Hurricane Katrina. Experts from a wide range of academic and practical backgrounds address the root causes of disaster vulnerability and offer solutions to build more resilient communities to ensure that no one is left behind.

Mitchell, Katharyne, and Polly Pallister-Wilkins, editors. The Routledge Handbook of Critical Philanthropy and Humanitarianism. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2023.
This handbook builds a shared understanding of the troubling politics of philanthropy and the history and practices of humanitarianism. Contributors link the long history of colonial philanthropy to current foundations and their programs in education, health, migrant care and other social initiatives. They argue that humanitarianism not only alleviates the inequalities wrought by global capitalism to allow for the secure and efficient functioning of the market, but humanitarianism also performs and consolidates liberal market rationalities around efficiency, expansion and increasingly neoliberal entrepreneurialism. Collectively, this work discusses philanthropy and humanitarianism together, combining both historical scope and contemporary iterations and highlighting continuities and convergences-making.

Samuel, Katja, Marie Aronsson-Storrier, and Kirsten Nakjavani Bookmiller, editors. The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction and International Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
The number, intensity, and impact of diverse forms of 'natural' and 'human-made' disasters are increasing. In response, the international community has shifted its primary focus away from disaster response to prevention and improved preparedness. The current globally agreed upon roadmap is the ambitious Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, central to which is the better understanding of disaster risk management and mitigation. Sendai also urges innovative implementation, especially multi-sectoral and multi-hazard coherence. Yet the law sector itself remains relatively under-developed, including a paucity of supporting 'DRR law' scholarship and minimal cross-sectoral engagement. Commonly, this is attributable to limited understanding by other sectors about law's dynamic potential as a tool of disaster risk mitigation, despite the availability of many risk-related norms across a broad spectrum of legal regimes. This handbook brings together global and multi-sector perspectives on one of the most pressing policy issues of our time.

Zorzi Giustiniani, Flavia, editor. Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Disasters. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2018.
The volume provides a comprehensive review of the role played by international human rights law in the prevention and management of natural and technological disasters. Each chapter is written by a leading expert and offers an overview of a significant topic within the field. In addition to focusing on the role of human rights obligations in disaster preparedness and response, the contents offer a broader perspective by examining how human rights law interacts with other legal regimes and by addressing the challenges facing humanitarian organizations.

 

 

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.