The work is divided into three major areas: "preparing for and reacting to catastrophic events, minimizing harm, and applying information gleaned from present-day disasters to those of the future.

"[2] The book emphasizes the importance of "situational awareness," and asserts that major events like Hurricane Katrina, and the January 6 Capitol attack could have been handled better if better preparation had been made.

[2] Minimizing cascading failure is a concept that is delved into, where preparation is made this in turns prevents further loss (fewer deaths from IEDs with better medical response).

As Assistant Secretary, Kayyem was responsible for coordinated and consistent planning between the Department and all of its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners on issues like immigration, intelligence sharing, military affairs, border security, and the response to operational events such as H1N1 influenza outbreak, the December 25th attempted terrorist attack, the Haiti earthquake, and the BP oil spill.

"[1] Publishers Weekly said that the work is, "full of practical advice and incisive analysis, this is an astute and timely road map for mitigating the consequences of the next cataclysm.