Rise of the Warlords

“Rise of the Warlords” is the second book in the “Tsunami Chronicles” series. Set in Indonesia’s western province, Aceh, it is a story of impressive leadership in emergency response and recovery following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The recovery was plagued with serious political, organisational and technical challenges. Local warlords fought for supremacy. Conflict, corruption and incompetence seared the scene. Soaring costs collapsed commitments. Political infighting tore at the heart and soul of everything. “Warlords” dives inside the lead government agency where a master organisational strategist ultimately tamed these and other forces. It reveals the practicalities of disaster management and realities of emergency leadership and offers a rare study of how organisations really work. The story will hold special appeal to those in the international community—the UN, World Bank, Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations and development agencies—keen for greater insights into disaster risk management, preparedness and reconstruction in an era of global warming and climate change where natural disasters threaten like never before.

Few natural disasters come bigger than the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It left a trail of destruction from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other. Hardest hit was Aceh in Indonesia’s west where the tsunami killed almost a quarter of a million people, left half a million homeless and destroyed swathes of infrastructure. The global community responded with the largest military deployment since World War II plus billions in private and public donations. Four years later, Aceh had been rebuilt from the ground up in one of the world’s fastest and most successful disaster reconstruction programs, a stunning achievement given that so many international recovery operations fail. "Tsunami Chronicles: Adventures in Disaster Management" is a powerful series of six books that tell the inside story. Written by a key insider, they offer a great global case study in disaster risk management, preparedness and reconstruction, and a model of leadership in the politics of disaster recovery and management of political and operational complexity. “Rise of the Warlords” is the second book in the series. It reveals the snarling political forces that tore at the innards of Indonesia’s reconstruction agency. Local warlords fought for supremacy. Conflict, corruption and incompetence seared the scene. Soaring costs collapsed commitments. Political infighting tore at the heart and soul of everything. Taming these took tremendous effort and skill by a master strategist who ultimately won the game in a story of impressive leadership in emergency response and recovery. It is a story with special appeal to those in the international community—the UN, World Bank, Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations and development agencies—keen for greater insights into the management of disaster recovery in an era of global warming and climate change where natural disasters threaten like never before.

Bill Nicol is an author, speaker and consultant. He helped lead the recovery of Aceh from the 2004 tsunami as senior advisor to the Indonesian Government after many years consulting to senior levels of government and industry. He has been an investigative journalist, current affairs reporter and political correspondent with a background in print, radio and television. His previous books are on man-made disaster, ethical failure in medical science and negotiating.