1st Edition

Compassion in Disaster Management The Essential Ethic of Relational Leadership

By Mark Crosweller Copyright 2025
300 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

300 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

300 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Should leadership minimise suffering? This book argues yes: offering leaders, especially those in disaster management, a way to improve their ability to lead, serve, and protect others during disasters and crises. Drawing upon his own experiences as a disaster management specialist as well as high-level interviews with disaster management leaders from the USA, Australia and New Zealand,... Read more

Table of Contents

Dedication

1. Introduction

Part 1: Setting the Scene 

2. The Leadership Dilemma

3. Introducing Relational Leadership

Part 2: Suffering and Vulnerability

4. Understanding Suffering as a Basis for Relationality 

5. Responsibility for Minimising Suffering

6. Understanding Vulnerability as a Basis for Relationality

7. The Invulnerable–Relational Leadership Continuum

Part 3: Compassion and Virtue

8. Establishing Relationality through the Ethic of Compassion

9. The Politics of Compassion

10. Enhancing Relationality through the Lens of Virtue Ethics

11. The Seven Rules of Virtue 

Part 4: Practices

12. Sustaining Relationality Through Practical Wisdom

13. Sustaining Relationality Through the Practice of Mindfulness

Conclusion

Epilogue

Biography

Mark Crosweller has 40 years of experience providing strategic policy advice on disaster management with local, state and national governments. He is a Distinguished Advisor to the National Security College – Australian National University and Director of Ethical Intelligence Pty Ltd. His ongoing research interest is in relational leadership ethics.

“A powerful and deeply authentic account of what it means to be an ethical and compassionate leader, not only in disaster risk management but in many other professions that experience a seemingly pervasive leadership crisis. This book encourages us to recalibrate our responsibility towards all citizens and denizens of this world who deserve protection, empathy, and dignity. Relational leadership means embracing our own vulnerability as the connective tissue that allows us to navigate these turbulent times with care and humility.”

Petra Tschakert, Professor of Geography and Global Futures, Curtin University

“More than a textbook, more than a leadership manual, more than a philosophical treatise, this book is practical and profound in equal measure. Mark Crosweller singularly combines insights from a career in disaster management with contemporary scholarship and the insights of a great religious tradition to explain why true leadership is about self-knowledge and service.”

Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College, Australian National University

“This book offers theory, research, and contemplative reflections, building upon Mark’s leadership journey. His research and curiosity are driven by a desire to understand what underpins compassionate and relational leadership that clearly places people at the heart of what we do as leaders. Mark recognises the current context, where disaster management is increasingly undertaken in a complex, fast paced environment, where the scale and concurrency of emergencies is increasing, and where the challenges leaders face are dynamic and evolving.”

Sarah Stuart-Black, QSO, Secretary General, New Zealand Red Cross