The way communities build resiliency and prepare for acts of terrorism is ambiguous in the United States; best practices remain unclear. Due to mobility and advancements in communication technologies, individuals and organizations share information, incite anger, recruit, and act on ideological grievances with ease. Such grievances are bolstered by the political and social exclusion of disparate groups through poorly designed policies and ineffective government structures. Using a combination of social constructivism and systems thinking theories, this case study explored collaboration efforts between government agencies and nongovernment experts in Oklahoma City, OK, identifying best practices as a result of lessons learned following the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Data were acquired through public records related to the bombing, combined with a qualitative survey of 31 community leaders. These data were inductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Key findings indicate that while open communication with the community and increased coordination were suggested by participants, reports were kept internal to each agency and not widely shared or implemented effectively across the community. Sharing the identified best practices and acknowledging collaboration opportunities promotes positive social change by involving the broader community and building early resiliency to address ideologic grievances and create more effective community counterterrorism plans.

"This paper analyzes the decision making processes in the federal system through a case study, that of the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport controversy, and reveals the role of the many governments and interest groups involved. ...In this study the background of conflict is reviewed, after which the CAB [Civil Aeronautics Board] decision, accomplishments and problems are discussed. The presentation will reflect the cooperative role of all governments in the federal system, plus pressure groups that contribute to decision-making in the federal system."-- leaves 2,13.

La France et l’Espagne connaissent depuis plus de vingt ans des processus de recompositions territoriales, dont l’un des enjeux est la création de nouveaux territoires intermédiaires à l’échelle locale (structures intercommunales, “Pays” en France, comarcas en Espagne). Entre commune/municipio et département/provincia, ces derniers sont censés favoriser une refonte de l’organisation territoriale, mais aussi le développement de nouveaux modes de gestion territoriale, plus intégrés et plus horizontaux. À partir des exemples des régions Rhône-Alpes et Catalogne, parmi les premières à développer ces nouveaux espaces locaux, cette thèse interroge leur caractère intermédiaire et le type d’intermédiarité qui les caractérisent. L’analyse révèle la fragilité des mailles intermédiaires en construction, liée à l’échec de leurs potentielles fonctions d’intermédiarité et à la faiblesse née de leur caractère intermédiaire : elles connaissent une neutralisation interne et externe, et peinent donc à trouver leur légitimité par rapport aux niveaux existants et à d’autres nouveaux découpages locaux. La multiplication de ces derniers, qui révèle autant qu’elle explique l’échec des mailles étudiées, montre cependant que c’est moins l’échelle ou le niveau intermédiaire qui sont en cause que les modalités de leur construction. En s’appuyant sur un vaste corpus législatif et sur des enquêtes de terrain (Pays Roannais, comarques du Bages et d’Osona), en croisant de multiples échelles spatio-temporelles dans l’analyse de ces découpages locaux, ce travail invite à systématiser, dans le cadre d’une possible convergence européenne, les études géographiques des systèmes d’administration territoriale. / For more than twenty years, France and Spain have undergone various processes of territorial reshaping, among which the creation of new intermediate authorities at the local scale (inter-city structures, Pays in France, comarcas in Spain). Halfway between commune/municipio and département/provincia, these government units are intended to favor the reform of the territorial organization as well as the design of better integrated and more horizontal territorial management policies. Based on the case studies of pioneer regions Rhône-Alpes and Catalunya, among the first to develop these new local spaces, this work questions the level of intermediateness that characterizes these local units under construction. It shows that the failure of their potential intermediate functions is due to their intermediate nature which itself makes them very fragile. They are subject to both internal and external neutralization and struggle to assert their legitimacy vis à vis existing government levels and other new local territories. The dramatic increase of the latter shows that it is the way the intermediate local units under study are built rather than their mere intermediate scale that explains their failure. Based on a large corpus of legislative material, on field studies (Pays Roannais, comarques of Bages and Osona) and on a multi-level cross-analysis in both space and time, this work aims to systematise the geographical approach of local government systems, a methodology particularly relevant in the perspective of converging local policies at the European level.