Brookings Institution Press

Foreword he job of running American government now faces a profound problem: much of what is written doesn't match much of the way government actually works. Consider the tragic disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia in February 2003. As it reentered the atmosphere over the southwestern...

" A host of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, as well as some pleasant surprises—like the sudden end of the cold war without a shot being fired—have caught governments and societies unprepared many times in recent decades. September 11 is only the most obvious recent example among many...