The Defense Production Act and the Failure to Prepare for Catastrophic Incidents

by

16 April 2020

This article addresses the Defense Production Act as it pertains to the US’ systemic failure to prepare for catastrophes like the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The article argues that “the executive branch’s ad-hoc application of the Defense Production Act’s authorities to this pandemic is Exhibit A of how our government, across multiple Republican and Democratic administrations and throughout the national security enterprise, has failed to develop or adapt the Act’s tools for the threats of the 21st century”.

View in War on the Rocks

Image credit: Featous

Recent Publications from GCRI

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Recent Publications from GCRI

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Recent Publications from GCRI

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? Warming temperatures are already causing a variety harms around the world, some quite severe, and they project to worsen as temperatures increase. However, despite the massive body of research on climate change, the...

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Diversity is an important ethical concept. It’s also relevant to global catastrophic risk in at least two ways: the risk of catastrophic biodiversity loss and the need for diversity among people working on global catastrophic risk. It’s additionally relevant to...

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Manipulating Aggregate Societal Values to Bias AI Social Choice Ethics

Manipulating Aggregate Societal Values to Bias AI Social Choice Ethics