Even before the wreckage of a disaster is cleared, one question is foremost in the minds of the public: "What can be done to prevent this from happening again?" Today, news media and policymakers often invoke the "lessons of September 11" and the "lessons of Hurricane Katrina." Certainly, these unexpected events heightened awareness about problems that might have contributed to or worsened the disasters, particularly about gaps in preparation. Inquiries and investigations are made that claim that "lessons" were "learned" from a disaster, leading us to assume that we will be more ready the next time a similar threat looms, and that our government will put in place measures to protect us.

In Lessons of Disaster, Thomas Birkland takes a critical look at this assumption. We know that disasters play a role in setting policy agendas—in getting policymakers to think about problems—but does our government always take the next step and enact new legislation or regulations? To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, the author examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. He explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change: change in the larger social construction of the issues surrounding the disaster; instrumental change, in which laws and regulations are made; and political change, in which alliances are created and shifted. Birkland argues that the type of disaster affects the types of lessons learned from it, and that certain conditions are necessary to translate awareness into new policy, including media attention, salience for a large portion of the public, the existence of advocacy groups for the issue, and the preexistence of policy ideas that can be drawn upon.

This timely study concludes with a discussion of the interplay of multiple disasters, focusing on the initial government response to Hurricane Katrina and the negative effect the September 11 catastrophe seems to have had on reaction to that tragedy.

Thomas A. Birkland is the William T. Kretzer Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University. He is the author of After Disaster: Agenda Setting, Public Policy, and Focusing Events.

Table of Contents
Tables
Figures
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter One: Introduction and Overview
Knowledge, Learning, and Policy Change
Different types of learning
Policy failure and learning
A Model of Event-Related Policy Change
Learning and Lessons in This Study
Methods
The Case Studies
Conclusion
Chapter Two: September 11, Learning, and Policy Change
What Is Homeland Security?
Events and Reports: The Emergence of the Homeland Security Problem
The Gilmore commission
The Hart-Rudman commission
The September 11 Attacks as Focusing Events
September 11, Policy Failure, Learning, and Change
Shifting constructions of the terrorist threat
Post September 11 legislation as evidence of instrumental learning
The role of the September 11 commission in instrumental learning
Conclusions: Learning after September 11
Chapter Three: Learning from Aviation Security Disasters
Historical Trends in Aviation Security
Agenda change and Security Incidents
News coverage of aviation security
The substance of the media agenda
Voices and topics in Congress
Ideas in Congress: Did dominant issues match the¿real¿ problem?
The breadth of the agenda: Do focusing events focus attention?
Policy change, learning, and implementation
Presidential commissions on aviation security
The GAO reports on aviation security
Summarizing post-september 11 learning
Implementation Problems in Aviation Security
Conclusions
Chapter Four: Learning From Earthquakes and Hurricanes
Why Natural Hazards Matter
Disaster Mitigation as a Primary Goal of Disaster policy
Earthquakes and Hurricanes on National and Local Agendas
Group activity and congressional committees
The substance of the debate
Legislation and Regulation
Learning from Disasters at the State and Local Level
Earthquake policy in California
Earthquake policy in Washington State
Hurricane policy in Florida and North Carolina
Summarizing state-level learning
Conclusions
Chapter Five: Summary and Conclusions
Learning and the Policy Process
Revisiting the Propositions
A small number of events will gain the largest amount of attention
Focusing events trigger group mobilization
The relationship between events, ideas, and policy change.
Assessing the Elements of the Model
Factors hat promote and inhibit learning
Factors that promote learning
Impediments to learning
Focusing Events and the Accumulation of Knowledge
Policy Implementation and Lessons
The Persistence of Learning and the Unlearning Of Lessons
Conclusion
References
Notes
Tables
Table 11: Types of Learning, Who Learns, and what is Learned	
Table 12: Typical evidence of learning in the policy process	
Table 21:, Definition of Categories of Policies in the Homeland Security Domain	
Table 22: Recommendations of the Hart-Rudman, Gilmore and September 11 Commissions
Table 23: Public Laws Related to Terrorism, September 2001 to December 2004	
Table 31: Key features of aviation security incidents	
Table 32: Key Issues in Aviation Security since 1985	
Table 33: Voices represented in the New York Times, by group type and agenda status of events, 1985-2002.	
Table 34: Federal government representatives the New York Times, by agency and agenda status of events, 1985-2002.	
Table 35: Topics of stories on aviation security, 1985-2002	
Table 36: Testimony on Aviation Security, by Witness Affiliation, 1985-2002	
Table 37: Testimony on Aviation Security, by Federal Government Witness Affiliation, 1985-2002	
Table 38: Topics in Congressional Hearings on Aviation Security, 1985-2002	
Table 39: Ideas Contained in Congressional Testimony and Legislation on Aviation Security, 1988-2002	
Table 310: Evidence of Learning in Aviation Security	
Table 41: Selected Legislation on Natural Hazards, 1950-2004	
Table 42: Substance of Stories in Earthquakes and Hurricanes in the New York Times, 1990 to 2002	
Table 43: Local Newspaper Coverage of Selected Natural Hazards	
Table 44: Earthquakes and Hurricanes: Congressional Testimony, by Group Type and Event Status, 1990 to 2002	
Table 45: Witnesses on Earthquakes and Hurricanes, by agenda status of events and by issue, 1990-2002	
Table 46: Congressional Record Entries on Earthquakes and Hurricanes, by agenda status of events and by issue, 1990-2002	
Table 47: Policy Types in Congressional Record and in Proposed Legislation	
Table 48: Substance of Disaster Legislation on Earthquakes and Hurricanes, 1990-2002 	
Table 49: Key actions in earthquake policy, California and the United States, 1933-2000	
Table 410: Magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes, Washington State since 1900	
Figures
Figure 11: Crises and Disasters	
Figure 12: A Model of Event-Related Policy Learning	
Figure 21: Stories on "Terrorism" in the New York Times, by Desk, 1990-2004, with Congressional Testimony on Terrorism	
Figure 31: The Aviation Security Agenda, 1985-2002