<jats:p>This collection of essays is primarily focused, as the sub-title of the volume indicates, on crisis communication in two specific countries; but it is inherent in the nature of the events of Decemeber 2004 that they defy such reductionism. Sweden and Finland provide a starting-point, rather than an end-point, for the analyses simply because although they were 'geographically non-impacted countries' (that is, the tsunami did not occur in either), the consequence for both were huge. </jats:p>