ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of the emergency manager in disaster and terrorism. It explores the emergency manager's role in disaster and terrorism and then how that role relates to the intergovernmental relationship of emergency management and homeland security. Just as the history of emergency management in the United States was instigated by the possibility of nuclear attack, the relationship of the emergency manager to disaster and terrorism can be understood by examining the nature of focusing events and disaster policy in the United States. As such, the role of the emergency manager in disaster and terrorism has evolved in a political environment that is reactive to major focusing events. Importantly, Waugh and Streib proposed that due to the extensive unknowable outcomes of disaster and terrorism, the most important aspect of the emergency manager's role was the ability to collaborate with other emergency managers as well as other levels of government and community partners.
