Being adaptive helps you fight crisis

Ritika Sharma / Emirates Business

Being adaptive, working in unison and devising innovative strategies can play a key role in fighting crisis situations that result from extremism or terrorism activities, global experts suggested. Accepting that emergency circumstances cannot be predicted exactly beforehand, industry leaders urged that there is a need to look beyond conventional measures to cope up with such events.
These were the sentiments that echoed during the recently held Crisis and Emergency Management Conference (CEMC) in Abu Dhabi.
Prefet Henri MASSE, Director of the studies at the national administration academy and a former General Commander of French Civil Defense, said during the conference, “We need to adapt our security systems because crisis or emergency situations – be it a terrorist attack or a natural disaster – can come anytime in any form. The best we can do is, being prepared.”
Flexible nature of any crisis management system is therefore of utmost importance. During his presentation titled Crisis from Security Perspective, he said that it is important to be “ready anytime for anything,”
Experts during the conference also urged a deeper understanding of what is causing terrorism to flourish and look at more “social” aspects leading to the same.
Dr. Maksoud Kruse, CEO of Hedayah International Center said, “We have progressed towards a world where no one is bound to be identified by their decent. We are all global citizens so first of all it is important that we don’t identify extremism with any religion, race or culture.”
“Secondly, there is a need of understanding the role of education, family and society in this context. We need to have a holistic approach towards crisis and emergencies as they are more about psychological, cultural and social aspects than anything else,” he emphasised.
Under the theme of ‘Innovative Approaches towards a Safe Nation’ and with the participation of a host of local, regional and international experts and specialists from the field of crises, emergencies, disasters and national security management, the
conference discussed critical aspects and sensitive topics that are closely linked to events and developments witnessed on both the Arab and international stages.