The quest for global security: Denis Fischbacher-Smith

Issued: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 14:31:00 BST

For Denis Fischbacher-Smith, Professor of Risk and Resilience the policy problems of risk, security and crisis management are areas of research which have global applications for both businesses and government policy makers. Professor Fischbacher-Smith’s current research has several main strands.

The first strand of his research focuses on the mass evacuation of cities from both natural phenomena and terrorist actions. A recent project has focused on the evacuation of Naples during a potential eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Despite earlier assumptions by policy makers that the pyroclastic flows and surges from Vesuvius wouldn’t reach Naples, recent excavations have discovered pyroclastic deposits in the outskirts of the city.

‘It changes the basis of contingency planning,’ says Professor Fischbacher-Smith. ‘The challenge then becomes one of how do you evacuate a city with three million people in it, when most of the infrastructure won’t work because of the ash? If we look back at the problems arising from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull on Iceland in 2010 then it is likely that the problems from an eruption at Vesuvius would have a significant impact locally and across Europe.’

The second strand of Denis’s current research is concerned with the ways in which ports might be conduits for the trafficking of people and small arms. Certain ports in Europe are likely to be key trafficking hubs, and he is collaborating with colleagues in the University’s Centre for War Studies to look at how organisational controls can be developed to prevent that trafficking occurring.

Professor Fischbacher-Smith’s work is highly interdisciplinary, and has included collaborations with colleagues in statistics, computer science, geographical sciences war studies and veterinary medicine, as well as with several police forces and the Scottish Government (where he is currently on a research-based secondment to the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Unit).

‘Within the risk and security field at the University there is that level of excitement that makes people want to talk about the research,’ he explains. ‘There is a thriving research environment at Glasgow in the area of risk and global security and there are numerous opportunities to interact with people from other disciplines. Glasgow has an active Global Security Network, which is a collection of all staff who carry out work in this field, so there are multiple opportunities to engage with colleagues across the University’s research environment.’