The idea of resilience, in essence, can be conceived of as “the capacity to cope with
unanticipated dangers after they have become manifest, learning to bounce back”
(Wildavsky 1988: 77). A community that is resilient would have the capacity to
reorganize its physical, social, economic, and political infrastructures to mitigate risk
and enhance its ability to respond to the disaster events as they occur (Haase 2006: 32).
In reality, however, many countries simply do not have enough capacity to effectively
respond to and recover from the disasters they confront. They thus reach out for
international assistance, especially from those who possess more resources, experience,
and expertise. Growing disaster threats have not only shifted the paradigm of human
security, but they have also called for a more integrated collaborative disaster
management at multiple levels (Sylves 2008: 195).