In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a book could not be more timely than this one about disaster prevention, relief, and recovery. Disaster upon Disaster is a collection of essays about disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management by a group of anthropologists, both scholars and practitioners. Almost to the letter, they echo the plaint of Stephen Krasner (1978, ix) who once asked, “Why are so many social scientists so anxious to give advice to policymakers when there is nothing in their theories that would suggest that it would do any good?” Although this book is unlikely to change policies and practices, its arguments, insights, and recommendations are all applicable to the inevitable climate disasters facing the world.
What can be learned from this book by scholars of global environmental politics and, especially, climate change? The arguments and conclusions of the individual authors can be boiled down...