Critical Releases in Homeland Security: January 8, 2014

"The United States and Canada are deeply interconnected by history, geography, and our people. We have the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with two-way trade in goods and services of over $700 billion in 2012, supporting millions of jobs in each country. The United States and Canada also share the longest common border in the world, touching three oceans. Our shared border is more than a simple geographical boundary; it is also the site of more than 100 ports of entry, doors from one country to the other, where the efficient movement of people and goods is crucial to the daily lives of our citizens, the health of our communities and to the competitiveness of our economies. The United States and Canada have a long tradition of working together to promote security and facilitate trade and travel across our borders, ensuring that they remain open to legitimate trade and travel and closed to terrorists, criminals, and illegal or unauthorized goods. This strong partnership continues. The 'Beyond the Border Declaration: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness' and its accompanying 'Action Plan,' announced by President Obama and Prime Minister Harper in 2011, deepen and institutionalize this cooperation at and away from the shared border."

This report, published on December 12, 2013, illustrates how to "protect our national security" while "maintaining the public trust" as well as our allies who are abroad. This list of forty-six recommendations has a goal to "establish broad understandings and principles," which will be helpful in the not-so-distant future.

"Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is the effective understanding of anything associated with the maritime domain that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of the United States. The Maritime Domain is all areas and things of, on, under, relating to, adjacent to, or bordering on a sea, ocean, or other navigable waterway, including all maritime-related activities, infrastructure, people, cargo, vessels, and other conveyances. This Plan provides the context to understand the importance of MDA to maritime security and why it is imperative to enhance MDA. It will empower the U.S. Government to understand the characteristics of the current maritime domain, identify the strategic approach we seek to employ, clarify our strategic and foundational priorities, and develop an implementation plan to improve MDA that enables decision-makers to perform their responsibilities consistent with Presidential Policy Directive 18 (PPD-18) and the National Strategy for Maritime Security (NSMS). This Plan promotes sustaining favorable conditions for global maritime security and prosperity. This is accomplished through the effective understanding of the maritime domain and by improving our ability to appropriately share maritime information, including intelligence, law enforcement information, and all-source data from the public and private sectors. The concept of maritime intelligence integration serves as a foundational and, therefore, necessary priority for the effective understanding of the maritime domain. This Plan serves to unify and support efforts to enhance domain awareness, advance decision-making, and provide the best possible setting to make maritime information appropriately available to all members of the Global Maritime Community of Interest (GMCOI). Additionally, this Plan acknowledges fiscal constraints and establishes priorities of effort consistent with those constraints."

"Our national well-being relies upon secure and resilient critical infrastructure--those assets, systems, and networks that underpin American society. To achieve this security and resilience, critical infrastructure partners must collectively identify priorities, articulate clear goals, mitigate risk, measure progress, and adapt based on feedback and the changing environment. 'NIPP [National Infrastructure Protection Plan] 2013: Partnering for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience' (hereafter referred to as the 'National Plan'), guides the national effort to manage risk to the Nation's critical infrastructure. The community involved in managing risks to critical infrastructure is wide-ranging, composed of partnerships among owners and operators; Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial governments; regional entities; non-profit organizations; and academia. Managing the risks from significant threat and hazards to physical and cyber critical infrastructure requires an integrated approach across this diverse community to: [1] Identify, deter, detect, disrupt, and prepare for threats and hazards to the Nation's critical infrastructure; [2] Reduce vulnerabilities of critical assets, systems, and networks; and [3] Mitigate the potential consequences to critical infrastructure of incidents or adverse events that do occur. The success of this integrated approach depends on leveraging the full spectrum of capabilities, expertise, and experience across the critical infrastructure community and associated stakeholders. This requires efficient sharing of actionable and relevant information among partners to build situational awareness and enable effective risk-informed decision making."