The scientific article published by KRUK in the new issue analyses the factors that influenced the decision-making in crisis units in two local governments (Tallinn city and Saaremaa rural municipality) in the event of the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020. The focus of the survey was on two problematic major events – Kirkorov’s concert in Tallinn and Kuressaare volleyball games. “Kirkorov’s concert as a potential virus source with thousands of people was postponed in the first wave, while the indirect consequences of the Kuressaare volleyball games affected the whole island painfully. We were interested in how such decisions were born and the incentives that influenced the decision-makers,” Hannes Nagel, founding member and research fellow at the Centre, described.

Data collected by the combined investigation method showed that decision-makers were most affected by time pressure, media and public pressure, and lack of information. In Saaremaa as a smaller community, as well as in a local government in a difficult situation in the first wave, the impact of the factors that pressured the decision was felt more strongly. The sample of the survey was formed by persons who worked in the crisis units of the city of Tallinn and the rural municipality of Saaremaa. The article in the Security Compass issue was only part of the KRUK survey mapping the factors that have influenced the crisis decision-making of local governments, which looked at the period just before the emergency situation. 

The scientific journal “Security Compass” brings together research articles in the field of internal security and security as well as overview articles on research, projects and conferences. It also offers texts that are important in the field for reading in Estonian. “Publishing the results of crisis management studies in Estonian is a clear expression of our values. We believe that the mother tongue science must also be done more in the field of crisis management, but also popularized, “Nagel said. “It is a pleasure that a scientific journal is also being edited in this area in Estonia,” he added.

Security Compass is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of internal security and security, in which the articles published are treated as Level 1.3 publications according to the ETIS classification. The second issue of the Security Compass and the article “Factors affecting crisis decision-making in the public sector in the initial phase of the coronavirus crisis on the example of the crisis units of the municipality of Saaremaa and the city of Tallinn” published in it are available here.