by William Burns
The Conversation
January 22nd, 2009
President Obama in his inaugural address squarely acknowledges that our country is facing significant challenges at home and abroad. These challenges, whether they are from the threat of terrorism or the current financial crisis, have brought hardships to many people from all walks of life. We have for a time been knocked down. Even so, [...]
Read: Risk Communication, Resilience, and the Wolf We Nurture
by John Mueller
The Conversation
January 21st, 2009
It might be good to request some specifics. I very much agree with William Burns that for Americans “the probability of being harmed” by terrorists is “extraordinarily small,” that “we need solid risk communication” about it, and that effective communication “should foster resilience and not fear.” The question is, what messages does the research on [...]
by The Editors
The Conversation
January 21st, 2009
Editors’ Note: From time to time, we receive particularly well-considered expert commentary on an issue of Cato Unbound. This month we received two such commentaries, and we are pleased to run the second of them today. It comes from Timothy Sellnow, a professor of risk and crisis communication at the University of Kentucky who has [...]
Read: Commentary on Terrorism and Risk Communication by Timothy Sellnow
by William Burns
The Conversation
January 16th, 2009
Camille Pecastaing offers a number of useful insights in response to my essay and Bernard Finel’s and John Mueller’s comments. He begins by pointing out that what I call fear in my essay is really anxiety. This is a good point, because fear is more visceral but anxiety endures well past the traumatic events. Anxiety [...]
Read: Risk Communication and the Dynamics of Public Response
by Camille Pecastaing
The Conversation
January 16th, 2009
While it is easy to agree on the benefits to better educating citizens about risks from terrorism, there are many paths to enlightenment, some more practical than others. The task would not just be about preparing the people most likely to be exposed to an emergency, namely those in the largest metropolitan areas, but about [...]
by The Editors
The Conversation
January 16th, 2009
Editors’ Note: From time to time, we receive particularly well-considered expert commentary on an issue of Cato Unbound. This month we received two such commentaries, and we are pleased to run the first of them today. It comes from Howard Kunreuther, the Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy at the Wharton [...]
Read: Commentary on Terrorism and Risk Communication by Howard Kunreuther
by Bernard Finel
The Conversation
January 14th, 2009
On most issues, I think the gap between my perspective and Dr. Burns’ is quite small. I don’t think that policy success directly translates into changes in public perceptions. And I agree with his conclusion, “Take-away lesson: To be effective, reducing risk must be accompanied by identifying gaps in public understanding.” Where I am more [...]
by William Burns
The Conversation
January 12th, 2009
Bernard Finel and John Mueller (I’ll respond separately to Camille Pecastaing’s commentary) offer spirited and at moments insightful objections to my central thesis that our dialog surrounding terrorism should have as its primary goal increased resilience to threats like terrorism. I also advocate we should confront fear of terrorism directly by risk communications grounded in [...]
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