The Hydra paradox : global disaster management in a world of crises

This article explores issues of disasters and their management, against a backdrop of multiple crises that are seen as defining the current condition of globalisation, driven by an ongoing dialectic between forces from 'above' and 'below'. The article draws on forms of chaos theory, treating disasters and their management as a key site in which to examine intersections of crisis and chaos in global processes, colliding with destructive natural events and forces which are still outside dominant systems of control. The exposition starts from a new look at the ancient myth of Hydra, still used to capture the intractability of global crises and problems. Hydra represented hyper-complexity and exponential growth, qualities that characterise global problems today. It also presented a fantasy solution to the problems of agency from below which dominant groups have found irresistibly seductive for millennia.