How to Survive a Crisis

From the former Director of GCHQ, an invaluable guide to surviving crises — how to spot them early and lessen their devastating consequences — using the latest intelligence strategies.

‘Sir David Omand is undoubtedly one of the most able people to have served in British government since the Second World War’ — Times Literary Supplement

We never know when a crisis might explode. Some 'sudden impact' events, like terrorist attacks or natural disasters, blow up out of a clear blue sky. But some crises burn and fester slowly, often with warning signs ignored along the way until, as if from nowhere, the troops storm the palace. Yet, we are rarely powerless in the face of crises.

In How to Survive a Crisis, Professor Sir David Omand, formerly both a director of GCHQ and the UK's Security and Intelligence Coordinator, demonstrates how anyone can survive—and even thrive in—crises by using methodologies employed by the British intelligence agencies.

Using gripping real-world examples from Omand's storied career, including chairing the COBR room in the storm of a crisis, and lessons from historic crises such as Chernobyl, 9/11, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the WannaCry ransomware cyber-attack, this empowering book shows what we can do as individuals and societies to increase our resilience in the face of ever-multiplying crises.

A toolkit for our turbulent twenty-first century, this is an exhilarating read for anyone interested in the state of our world—and how we might improve it.