Naill Al Momani’s scientific contributions

The aim of this study is to address a gap in the literature associated with the inuence of demographic characteristics of personnel working in disaster risk management on the organisational level of preparedness in this eld. The study further aims to identify the impact of human, organisational, technological, coordination and environmental factors on the level of readiness in Saudi Arabia in dealing with crises and disasters. The case study applied a purposeful sampling approach in collecting 550 questionnaires from representatives of ve geographical regions, 20 government organizations comprising 13 administrative regions. The study tested two hypotheses with the single-variance analysis test (P) performed for each stage (level) of the readiness of the relevant government departments inclusive of the demographics—age, education, position/job title, academic specialization, number of disaster risk management related short courses completed and residential region of the study members. The ndings suggest the inuence of disaster management short course education and the region in which the respondent is located impacted signicantly on the level of crisis and disaster organisational preparedness. Lesser impact on level of readiness for dealing with crises and disasters was identied for demographics of age, education level, position held and academic specialisation. Further, in the second area of the study ndings indicate minimal variation in the impact of human, organisational, technological, coordination and environmental factors on the readiness of government departments in all phases of disaster risk management with all factors trending neutral and consistent with the weighed response averages.

The increase in the use of social media as a 21st century communication tool is in parallel increasing the threat to national security globally. This study explores the perception of United Arab Emirate community members (specifically youth) on the influence of social media as a threat; the wide use of SM platforms for Emirate of Sharjah (Dibba Al-Hisn, Khor Fakkan, Kalba) were analyzed utilizing a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the study on the effects and consequences of social media on national security in the UAE, rates social media as having the highest level of influence on political implications followed in decreasing order of influence by, economic, cultural and societal, ethical and religious dimensions, and the least potential influence being on perceived national security implications. Further, the results of a one-way variance analysis indicate the potential for the perceived level of national security experienced by youth community members in the UAE to be predicted through social media. A unique feature of this study is the analysis of the influence of the five dimensions of national security on each other and national security collectively from an Arab youth perspective. Further, the study design is replicable and offers, (a) an opportunity for wider utilization as an avenue for contributing to understanding the impact of social media on the perception of a country’s national security, and (b) a fundamental baseline for future research.