How do societies deal with threats? How do they react to natural disasters, industrial catastrophes or terrorism? These questions are the focus of the ESR project. Resilience – the technical term – is often translated as resilience. At its core, it is the ability of a society not only to survive crises, but also to quickly regain its ability to function by adapting to the new circumstances. This topic is increasingly becoming the focus of international security research and crisis management. In Germany, resilience research has so far been underrepresented. The ESR project aims to contribute to closing this gap. The focus is on a systematic comparison of German and Israeli experiences in dealing with various disasters. Israel has extensive experience with terrorist violence. In Germany, experience and competence in natural and industrial disasters are more pronounced. The different starting points promise a profitable exchange of experiences and examples. In order to promote an exchange between those responsible, the project team will develop a web-based interactive expert exchange system (IEES). The IEES will serve as a first point of contact for information on resilience. Practical experts and scientists from Germany and Israel will engage in an intensive dialogue. The project is divided into two phases: In a first phase (March 2010 – February 2011), the project team and potential users of the platform will develop a prototype and evaluate the first interim results. In a second phase (2011 – 2013), the IEES will be implemented, present information and stimulate discussions. The IEES will be constantly adapted according to user feedback.

Duration: 03/2010 – 02/2011 (Phase 1) und 2011-2013 (Phase 2)
Client: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Programm Kooperation in der zivilen Sicherheitsforschung zwischen Deutschland und Israel im Rahmen des Programms “Forschung für die zivile Sicherheit”
Team: Dr. Hans-Liudger Dienel, Roman Peperhove
Project partner: Zebralog, ICTAF, Universität Tel Aviv