[Part 3. Introduction]

Abstract

Whenever the issue of new risks and emerging crises arises, the spectre of September 11 casts its shadow. But 9/11 is not the only issue. For instance, Katrina has altered the agenda of influential circles in Washington, which are now calling for an "all-hazards approach" less focused on the single problem of terrorism. More generally, we find ourselves today in a transitional period, marked by global discontinuities with respect to security and vulnerability on all fronts - environment, climate, demographics, public health, technology, social dynamics, economic tensions, geostrategy, violence. Whatever the field, we now see the curtain fall on an era whose mantra was "everything is under control" - the misleading guiding principle that dominated the approach to risk and crisis throughout the years 1980 to 2001. In other words, we have witnessed "the end of zero risk" (Lagadec-Guilhou, 2002), and we now need a new vision and new practices.