Emergency planning in civil defence : past and present
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In the past, the term “civil defence” referred to the actions undertaken by civil administrations in order to support the military in times of war. Today, the term refers to actions taken to prevent all threats to citizens’ life and properties and to the security of the state (such as chemical, radiological, biological and nuclear attack).
It was therefore necessary to give the term “civil defence” a new definition. Nowadays civil defence is considered to be the system that protects the country, its interests and security. Civil defence has a very complicated problem to solve because it is related to the government’s continuity, to the state’s vital interests and population, and to the protection of the economic, logistic and social capacity of the nation. Civil defence and civil protection are two different systems :
- "civil protection" takes care of the population and properties during natural and anthropic calamities,
- "civil defence" deals with the state’s security, and considers all emergency situations due to attacks to the nation.
Newsletter 7 on Workshop 6: Risk management and training
