Introduction from the President of the International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has now been with us for about three years, even if the last year has been relatively normal, but it seems that we need to live with this for a long time. This has clearly shown the need for global cooperation and coordination are more important than ever before. By working together and sharing of experiences and exchange of views among the experts of different countries, we can learn from each other to develop better methods and systems and advocate for better policies in fighting pandemics and other emergencies. We can also be more successful in standardization of response to future pandemics and implement them all over the world. The pandemic has shown TIEMS that we need to change the way we operate in the way that we run conferences. We have adapted to run our annual conferences using ZOOM and other communication tools in the past three years. As TIEMS, we have been more active than before. We have done monthly webinars on international models in emergency management in cooperation with Capacity Building International (CBI), and the TIEMS Board members have met more often than before COVID-19 in real “space.” Since 2020, our annual conferences have been run online and the TIEMS 2022 Hybrid Annual Conference took place in person and via ZOOM. I am very thankful for the excellent cooperation we have with CBI and to French and USA chapters, who have helped organize these three conferences. The current special issue will present some of the papers which had been presented at the TIEMS Annual Conferences between 2020 and 2022. At the same time, some selected papers from the individual chapters of TIEMS.