French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined the call last week to create an all-EU crisis response team to stem the destruction of disasters all over the world.
The recent series of emergencies, from floods in Pakistan, the forest fires in Russia, to January's earthquake in Haiti -- and now the predicted flooding in the China-North Korea border region -- has attracted increasingly global attention on disasters. The international community is generating widespread discussion on the appropriate role for non-local governments in disaster relief. (...)
