Crisis

A crisis is an event that produces or leads to a dangerous situation affecting a person, community, society, or planet. Because the term "crisis" can mean many things, those who speak of a crisis often use a modifier to clarify its context, as in "personal crisis," "organizational crisis," or "global crisis." By classifying the type of crisis that they are speaking about, speakers are able to ensure that the critical elements of an event or risk are conveyed and the magnitude of the event is fully understood by the audience.

Background

The English term "crisis" comes from the Greek word krisis, which had several meanings, including a type of trial or sentence, a judgment or decision, and an argument or dispute. Krisis often had a negative connotation, as in an unfavorable verdict, which is still attendant on the modern English word.

For centuries, scholars have sought to understand what causes a crisis to occur and how to differentiate crisis events from other types of problems. The critical elements of a crisis are that (1) it is unexpected and (2) the outcome is more likely than not to be negative, unstable, and dangerous. Consider the following example comparing a problem and a crisis. Imagine that a university expected 500 freshmen to show up on the first day of school, and as such 500 dormitory beds have been prepared. However, there was a miscommunication, and 510 students arrive instead. This is a problem for the university, which must quickly find places for the additional 10 students to sleep. However, the university is very likely to resolve this problem by finding beds. While the situation was unexpected, it will almost certainly have a positive resolution, and thus the situation is a problem but not necessarily a crisis.

On the other hand, if a country expected 500 refugee families to arrive and 510 families arrive instead, both the host country and the refugees could well classify the situation as a crisis. The extra families need places to stay, and the host country may not have adequate space. There may be a positive outcome, but it is not guaranteed; a negative outcome, such as turning away the additional refugee families, is equally likely. Therefore, because this is an unexpected event that is likely to have an unstable and dangerous outcome, it is a crisis.

Overview

Common types of crises include environmental crises, international crises, economic crises, public-health crises, and personal crises. Environmental crises can be classified as either anthropogenic (that is, caused by humans) or naturally occurring. They are often complex events, consisting of an initial, immediate crisis followed by longer-term problems in such areas as housing, public health, and animal welfare. An example of a human-made crisis occurred in 1986, when a power surge during a reactor test destroyed one of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine. As a result, communities within a thirty-kilometer (almost nineteen miles) radius of the power plant were evacuated, and nations around the world worried as airborne radiation moved across the globe. Animal and plant life in the region were exposed to large doses of radiation. This resulted both in an immediate crisis as well as long-term crises, as residents of the surrounding areas faced housing shortages and health problems.

A natural environmental crisis occurred in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck the North American eastern seaboard. At the time, this storm was considered to be the second-costliest hurricane in American history because it destroyed so much property and infrastructure. The hurricane affected land from Jamaica to Maine, and its effects reached as far inland as Wisconsin. Although this was a naturally occurring event, the storm damage caused a number of political, economic, and public-health crises.

International crises occur when two or more nations come into conflict, or are about to come into conflict, and both sides become anxious. For example, during the Cold War there were several incidences, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union were in heightened states of alert that could have led to full-scale war. While neither nation launched weapons at the other, these events are still called crises because they were moments when a severe risk emerged that produced unstable and potentially dangerous conditions.

An economic crisis occurs when a market is uncertain. This is often before a nation enters a depression or recession. The instability caused by an economic crisis can be seen in examples such as Zimbabwe, where an economic crisis between 2003 and 2008 resulted in increased prices for imported goods, government instabilities, and hyperinflation.

Public-health crises occur when a new disease emerges, or a disease spreads more quickly than previously expected. Modern public-health crises caused by diseases include the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas and parts of the Pacific in 2015–16, and the global COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2020. Diseases cause crises in two ways. First, the disease itself is a risk and requires people to take special precautions, such as not traveling, wearing face masks, or submitting for special tests and medications. Second, because public-health officials are focused on resolving the risk caused by a particular disease, other public-health services might go understaffed or underfunded, resulting in a lack of care for community members with health issues not related to the crisis.

Beyond diseases, public-health crises also occur during times of war when clean water and sanitation are in minimal supply and as a result, water- and food-borne illnesses are quickly spread. Similarly, poor or underserved communities might be said to face a public-health crisis because resources to provide health services such as child nutrition, maternal care, or diabetes treatment are in short supply.

A personal crisis occurs when an individual is overwhelmed by a situation. This might be due to an illness, the death of friend or loved one, losing a job, or any other significant change in the individual’s life. Unlike environmental crises and international crises, a personal crisis can be difficult to identify. This is because every person responds to a situation differently, and what might be manageable for one person might cause a crisis for another. Personal crises are often identified by their symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, or sudden behavioral changes. While some individuals will overcome a crisis on their own, others are helped by psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, or religious organizations.

Scholars, policymakers, police officers, doctors, and counselors study and practice a field known as crisis management. This field focuses on the causes of crises (typically organizational crises, though not always), ways to prevent crises from occurring in the future, and how to best manage a crisis once it has occurred.

Bibliography

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