Forum on the Future of Public Safety and Security
Risk 2.0 for Germany
Cross-party alliance of four Members of the Parliament presents the Green Paper on Public Safety and Security.
Since 9/11 the debate on Public Safety and Security is dominated by the threat of terrorism. Other “less obvious, gradually developing risks and the chain-linking of crisis events” are rather ignored.
For example a nation wide power cut, uninhabitable blocks of flats, the spreading of new diseases, the collapse of medical care with hundreds and thousands of dead and rivalry for vital resources can lead to chaotic crisis situations even today. The consequences could be much more challenging for a modern society like Germany than any terrorist attack.
Reasons lie in the increasing and all-encompassing dependency on infrastructure such as the electricity supply, the spread of transnational underground economies and the increased likelihood of pandemics, promoted by climate change and high levels of mobility for goods and people.
The cross-party alliance of four Members of the German Parliament – all with responsibility for internal affairs – has met this challenge: Gerold Reichenbach, Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Ralf Göbel of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), Hartfrid Wolff of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Silke Stokar von Neuforn of Alliance 90/The Greens.
The result is the Green Paper ”Risks and Challenges for Public Safety and Security in Germany – Scenarios and Key Questions”, which was presented to the media in Berlin on September 23. Five expert teams – from politics and sciences, from fire services and emergency rescue, from business and industries – describe particularly dangerous crises events in scenarios and background illustrations.
