Building Up the Global Cooperative System of Crisis and Emergency Management in Northeast Asia

Pan-Suk Kim
Yonsei University
South Korea
and
Jae-Eun Lee and Ju-Ho Lee
Chungbuk National University
South Korea
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This research emphasizes the role of global societies in improving the safety of the public. Although the importance of public safety has been recognized as a universal value for a long time, many people around the world still suffer from various crises.  Most existing research examines each country's efforts for managing the crisis efficiently.  However, from the global perspective, effective crisis and emergency management is a very complex and difficult problem which is affected by culture, sociopolitical and administrative conditions, civil society's role, institutions, and other factors.  Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to find alternative ways of improving the global cooperative system of crisis and emergency management, especially in Northeast Asia.  In order to establish the global cooperative system, we use the Jennings approach to suggest alternatives for cooperation and coordination between Japan, China and Korea. The article suggests that the effective global cooperative system linking these three countries would involve, among others, the following: organizing for coordination and cooperation, a statutory authority, communication channels, a function- and program-centered decision-making mechanism, joint/shared practical exercises and training, and a cooperative system in all the phases of crisis and emergency management. Needless to say, building up such a system would be a daunting task, but it is worthy to pursue for the welfare of the people in Northeast Asian countries.