Gradually Edwards became more interested in issues of disaster preparedness and how to train for self-reliance. In 1989 he and several friends founded what they later called the International Preparedness Network (IPN). In the early 21st century, it has become a training group to teach civilians how to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural, technological, environmental, civil, cyber, economic disasters. It specializes in the development of survival strategies for catastrophic emergencies such as global geophysical events, pandemics and nuclear, biological or chemical warfare. In 1993, they adopted the current name.