--- title: How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster description: Getting the military ready for future disasters, DIY medical tests and more. canonical: https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T17:01:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:18.331Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 7, 2016 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 7, 2016 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**The world turns to the U.S. military when disaster strikes. Let’s be ready.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/03/disaster-response-plans-shape/126352/) By Kedar Pavgi and Peter Kouretsos in Defense One **2\.** [**Could do-it-yourself medical testing save your life?**](https://aeon.co/opinions/how-diy-medical-testing-could-save-your-life) By Lori Miller Kase in Aeon **3\.** [**Here’s one thing African nations can do to spark their economies.**](http://qz.com/632658/we-must-open-up-africa-to-africans-if-we-really-want-to-boost-growth/) By Evans Wadongo in Quartz **4\.** [**A downside of America’s rising creative class? The end of retirement.**](http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/staff-editorials/16065/creative-class-retirement/) By Nico Lang in the Kernel **5\.** [**Students get grades at the end of the year. Why don’t textbooks?**](http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/03/03-dont-judge-book-cover-use-student-achievement-kane) By Thomas J. Kane at the Brookings Institution  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/"},"headline":"How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster","datePublished":"2016-03-07T17:01:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:18.331Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/","keywords":["Innovation","Military","Retirement"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249465/prepare-military-next-disaster/","name":"How to Prepare the Military for the Next Disaster"}}]}] ```