Editorial: Incident command systems: A dynamic tension among goals, rules and practice

This special issue examines the process of implementation, change and adaptation of Incident Command Systems (ICS) as a strategy for mobilizing and managing disaster operations in comparative perspective, focusing on ICS in practice in the United States, France, the Netherlands and Norway. Shorter essays present perspectives on ICS from China, Japan and New Zealand.The question is whether there is a distinctive organizational framework that is recognizable in all countries as the ICS, or whether there is a general set of principles for mobilizing and organizing emergency response operations that has generated a varied set of ICSs as they have been adapted to different operational contexts, resources, and training procedures for emergency personnel