Commentary on Burke's Article on ‘Challenging Fallacies of the Military Model’ in the Disaster Research and Emergency Management Practice

Abstract

While the debate continues between the emergency managers and disaster research community on the applicability of the Incident Command System (ICS), Burke (2018) introduces the modern military command and control system (modern military C2) as a practical solution that satisfies the disaster researchers’ recommendations. Burke's (2018) argument concludes that both practitioners and researchers overlook the essences of the military command and control system, which can be considered an analogous model to the problem-solving approach. This commentary paper is a critical review of the Burke's (2018) perspective. It highlights how and why modern military C2 differs from the problem-solving approach. There is more similarity between modern military C2 and ICS than between them and the problem-solving approach due to their structures and the flexibility level adopted therein.