The Interpreter: International Rescue and the Thai Cave Response

Disasters bring the international community together. Rescue, medical and engineering specialists gather at the scene to offer expert opinions and plan search-and-rescue operations as viewers watch, wait and send donations: the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2010 Chilean mine, the 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 to name just a few. The rescue of a group of boys and their soccer coach from a cave in Thailand is the latest example of “extraordinary cooperation,” explains Daniel Flitton for the Interpreter, published by the Lowy Institute.: “Australia has a group of police and other officials at the site in north-west Thailand, offering help to the Thai rescuers. British volunteer divers first found the team after their nine-day ordeal. Reports say radios equipped with Israeli technology are essential to communicating with the trapped boys. Experts from China, the US, and Japan, as well as from neighbouring countries Myanmar and Laos, are all working to help.” Flitton points out that governments and militaries build upon cooperation after each crisis, developing stronger organizations, training and standards for disaster relief. – YaleGlobal