STATES OF EMERGENCY - Patrick Lagadec

8 Introductionrecounted it in published form, such a publication would not long havelingered on my shelf" (22).This book seeks to respond to that appeal. It is built around testimony wecollected from high ranking officials who had been directly in charge ofmanaging a crisis. But in order to broaden the terms of the discussion, wealso spoke with other crisis actors, who have contributed their very concreteexperiences as victims, journalists, scientific experts, consultants, unionleaders, political leaders, or scholars. And to add an unorthodox voice to themix, we include a militant social critic and fervent partisan of alternativelifestyles, at least insofar as the countries of the southern hemisphere areconcerned.The first voices ensure that we will not lose sight of operational andstrategic necessities. The second group, that the urgency of taking action willnot too hastily drown out the social complexity of any technological crisissituation.With each interview, we pushed beyond the automatic responses and thefacile remarks that characterize the discourse in any crisis situation. Theseinterviews contain neither triumphant fanfare nor mediocre self-satisfaction,and even less of the false optimism which often seems to be de rigueur.(Though of course, the moment when the crisis hits is hardly a time forhumble meditation.) Instead, we will see actors who respect crisis, who wereits adversaries, and who applied all their intelligence and mental, social, andhuman capacities to fight it. Their tone seems rather to say, "What a powerfulenemy that was! How resourceful! So much remains for us to do!" Only afrank approach, only interviewees of the highest quality could hope to attainsuch a profound level of analysis.The main body of this work is preceded by an examination offeringgreater synthesis and highlighting some of the essential landmarks on theroute along which crisis dynamics build their momentum. Such a frameworkof reference provides a wider context to the interviews presented in part twoand makes them easier to understand. Finally, in part three, withoutpretending to develop an artificial synthesis of all these accounts, we willoffer a few guidelines for action and for thought. These will emerge out ofour expedition into the land of technologically-based crisis.