The Capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces and the Challenges of Disaster Management, 2000–2011

“Be prepared for all emergencies, and count on the unprecedented!” The expert authors of this book published by the Zrínyi Publishing House chose this thought – expressed by Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende – as their motto. The opening piece of the publisher’s new series entitled “Soldiers in Peace and Missions” deals with a very timely topic, namely the several disasters that occurred in Hungary during the first decades of the 21st century. The most vivid memories of the public may be of the shocking pictures of the floods striking our homeland and of the red sludge spill in 2010. The idea of publishing this book was motivated precisely by the events of the past decade: the authors believed it was useful to give an overview of this time-period from the aspect of the disasters affecting Hungary, our responses to them, and the role of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The goal is to learn from the mistakes made and make use of the accumulated experiences. The present volume of studies undertakes a profound and exhaustive elaboration of the topic. After presenting the disaster types and the protection against them, it introduces the legal background of disaster management, the structure and operation of the Hungarian Defence Forces Disaster Relief Scheme and the place and role of defence administration in the national system of disaster management. The book offers the readers detailed information – through the presentation of numerous concrete cases – on the activity and future tasks of the Hungarian Defence Forces in the field of flood control and the protection against man-made disasters. Besides the experts, we recommend this useful book – illustrated with facts, figures and rich photographic material – to the “civilian” readers too, because the effective civil-military co-operation is the token of the future in this area as well.