From escalating tensions in North Korea to deadly hurricanes in Central America, today’s global risk environment presents profound challenges for individuals, states, and organisations. Climate change, globalized communication technologies, cyber dependencies, urbanization and growing wealth disparities reflect just some of the global trends that contribute to uncertainty, deep interdependencies and rising vulnerabilities. One of the most profound challenges for mitigating such risks and responding to disasters is in the inherent complexity of today’s risk environment. Risk and disasters lie at the intersection of the physical and social; they are intimately connected to psychosocial, cultural and political processes as well as economic, engineering and environmental practices and policies. This course provides an introduction to international crisis management with an emphasis on understanding how risk and disasters are constructed and how we might best manage disasters and disaster risk in a globalized world.