Critical Releases in Homeland Security: December 3, 2008

"The 2008 Annual Report to Congress of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission sets forth the Commission's analysis of the U.S.-China relationship in the topical areas designated by the Commission's Congressional mandate: the areas for the Commission to consider and about which it is to make recommendations to the Congress. These include China's proliferation practices, the qualitative and quantitative nature of economic transfers of U.S. production activities to China, the effect of China's development on world energy supplies, the access to and use of U.S. capital markets by China, China's regional economic and security impacts, U.S.-China bilateral programs and agreements, China's compliance with its accession agreement to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the implications of China's restrictions on freedom of expression. Our analysis, along with recommendations to the Congress for addressing identified concerns, is chronicled in the Report and summarized herein."

"Global Trends 2025 is the fourth installment in the National Intelligence Council-led efforts to identify key drivers and developments likely to shape world events a decade or more in the future." "We prepared Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World to stimulate strategic thinking about the future by identifying key trends, the factors that drive them, where they seem to be headed, and how they might interact. It uses scenarios to illustrate some of the many ways in which the drivers examined in the study (e.g., globalization, demography, the rise of new powers, the decay of international institutions, climate change, and the geopolitics of energy) may interact to generate challenges and opportunities for future decision-makers. The study as a whole is more a description of the factors likely to shape events than a prediction of what will actually happen. By examining a small number of variables that we judge probably will have a disproportionate influence on future events and possibilities, the study seeks to help readers to recognize signposts indicating where events are headed and to identify opportunities for policy intervention to change or lock in the trajectories of specific developments. [...]. For example, the report's examination of the transition out of dependence on fossil fuels illustrates how different trajectories will entail different consequences for specific countries. An even more important message is that leadership matters, no trends are immutable, and that timely and well-informed intervention can decrease the likelihood and severity of negative developments and increase the likelihood of positive ones."

"This document serves as a high-level guide for Homeland Security Advisors (HSAs), State Administrative Agencies (SAAs), Urban Area Working Groups (UAWGs), regional groups and coalitions, and other agency leads with responsibilities that include aspects of infrastructure protection. The roles and responsibilities of these CIKR partners differ by State and region, depending on whether the area of concern crosses State or international borders, the authorities supporting each agency, and the way in which homeland security and infrastructure protection are addressed, managed, and funded in each area. In addition, much of the information presented will be useful to those responsible for homeland security practices and initiatives at the local, tribal, or territorial level. Application at these levels also will vary based on the many different forms of government (town, city, county, township, tribe, etc.), the local delegations of authority, budget constraints, and the numbers and types of critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) within any given community. This document is not intended to be prescriptive or to impose requirements on the States, communities, or other CIKR partners. Rather, it suggests various strategies and approaches, and leaves it to the discretion of each jurisdiction to determine which approach or combination of approaches, if any, might be suited to their specific needs, operating environments, and risk landscapes."

"This document provides an initial high-level strategy for carrying out the responsibilities of the national Maritime Domain Awareness Architecture Management Hub to deliver a standards-based service oriented architecture that will align MDA capabilities. It outlines key goals of the MDA Architecture Management Hub and how the hub will build on previous, current, and emerging initiatives across the Federal Government. A discussion of necessary governance in the context of the MDA Architecture Management Hub follows. Subsequently, high-level strategies for the overall MDA enterprise architecture, as well as strategies for key tenets of net-centric information sharing (data standards and information assurance) are included. Finally, this document will address the resource implications for development and implementation of the architecture. The goal of the Architecture Management Hub is to provide a blueprint to develop a net-centric, information sharing environment, in which data from disparate sources and security domains will be discoverable, accessible, understandable, fused, and usable, with appropriate information assurance, to enable user defined and common operational pictures. This blueprint will guide departments and agencies in their development of capabilities to enable MDA."