Title: Donor countries as aid recipients: the USA, New Zealand and the lessons of Hurricane Katrina

Authors: Robert J. Bookmiller; Kirsten Nakjavani Bookmiller

Addresses: International Studies Program, Center for Disaster Research and Education (CDRE), Department of Government and Political Affairs, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA 17551-0302, USA ' Department of Government and Political Affairs, Global Partnerships Initiative Center For Disaster Research and Education (CDRE), Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA 17551-0302, USA

Abstract: This study addresses the watershed case of the USA as large-scale international aid recipient following Hurricane Katrina, and its policy impact upon New Zealand's national disaster management planning in the same sphere. In both instances, countries more accustomed to playing the role of humanitarian benefactors were compelled to recognise a new global paradigm in which donor governments must also prepare for the contingency of being external aid beneficiaries. This paper further asserts that a binary approach of global donors and recipients is essentially irrelevant today and that all countries - wherever their position on the global wealth rankings - need to proactively develop sound legal and policy frameworks for incoming humanitarian assistance. To better appreciate this latter point, the study begins with a brief overview of contemporary global humanitarian assistance flows and motives for state aid offers and refusals.

Keywords: international assistance; disaster relief; humanitarian assistance; emergency management; disaster management; Hurricane Katrina; Christchurch earthquake; New Zealand; aid donors; aid recipients; FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Agency; emergency relief; emergency aid; USA; United States; earthquakes; hurricanes; emergency planning; disaster planning; state aid; legal frameworks; policy frameworks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2016.079019

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2016 Vol.12 No.3, pp.263 - 283

Received: 05 Jan 2015
Accepted: 06 Oct 2015

Published online: 09 Sep 2016 *

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