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Disaster resilience at home and abroad
June 2026
As climate change accelerates the frequency and severity of disasters, resilience in the face of overlapping and interlocking crises has become a significant element of national and regional security.
World in transition examines how disasters, including bushfires in Australia and climate-driven humanitarian crises across the Asia Pacific Region, are reshaping the importance of critical infrastructure, disaster preparedness and national resilience.
This builds on the World in Transition Policy Roundtable: Disaster Resilience at Home and Abroad, which explored Australia’s domestic experience with disaster preparedness and response, the challenges faced by regional partner states, and forward-looking pathways for strengthening disaster resilience as part of Australian statecraft.
The full report will be available to download soon.
Further insights
Below publications have shaped the report and provide some of the evidence base of the report.
This report argues that Australia’s recent crises, including COVID-19, climate change, supply-chain disruption and growing security risks, have exposed a national tendency to react too late, too narrowly and without enough long-term preparedness. It calls for a coordinated national resilience approach built around shared awareness, collaboration, preparedness and mobilisation, including stronger sovereign capability, trusted supply chains and an independent National Resilience Institute to help drive sustained action.
The Systemic Disaster Risk Handbook includes principles for systemic disaster risk reduction, inclusive governance, and decision-making to build resilience and sustainability.
The Handbook supports the implementation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework (Australian Government 2018), and the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR 2015).
Relevant to all sectors, this handbook is a core component of the Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection to help align efforts to enable sustainable economic, social, environmental and governance outcomes. Systemic Disaster Risk Handbook - AIDR/NEMA (2021, available via the AIDR Knowledge Hub)
The Australian Disaster Resilience Index is a snapshot of the capacities for disaster resilience in Australian communities. Understanding these capacities, and how they differ from place to place, will help communities, governments and industry work together to cope with and adapt to natural hazards such as bushfires, floods, storms and earthquakes. Australian Disaster Risk Index - Natural Hazards Research Australia, University of New England and NEMA (2025)
National Social Capital and Social Infrastructure Measurement Framework - Resilient Ready, with Professor Daniel Aldrich (2025, available via resilientready.org).