ABSTRACT

The Politics and Crisis Management of Animal Health Security addresses the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic in the United Kingdom - one of, if not the, most significant crises ever to face the UK farming industry. Underpinned by interviews with politicians and bureaucrats and with significant primary documentary analysis the book shows that the crisis was a critical juncture in how disease outbreaks have been planned and managed ever since. The author explores how this event affected policy and governance arrangements for managing subsequent disease-induced threats (such as avian influenza and bovine TB) and concludes by considering the ’temporality’ of lesson learning by the UK government including the current and future challenges associated with managing incongruent risks (e.g., flood protection, swine flu and Ebola). This book provides students of public policy and administration with a significant illustration of how key concepts and analytical lenses from public policy can be applied to the study of the contours of practical policy change.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part |84 pages

The Politics of Crisis Management and the Management of Foot and Mouth in the UK

chapter |28 pages

The Politics of Crisis Management

Themes and Issues

chapter |18 pages

Policy and Organisational Change Lenses

Making Connections with ‘Crisis'

chapter |36 pages

The 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis

A Critical Juncture

part |9 pages

Policy and Organisational Change

chapter |15 pages

The Dynamics of Change

Lessons from the UK Experience