Critical Releases in Homeland Security: March 18, 2015

From the Forward: "This maritime strategy describes how we will design, organize, and employ the Sea Services in support of our national, defense, and homeland security strategies. It also sets maritime priorities in an era of constrained resources, while emphasizing warfighting capabilities and forward naval presence to advance national interests today and guide preparations for tomorrow's challenges. Forward naval presence is essential to strengthening alliances and partnerships, providing the secure environment necessary for an open economic system based on the free flow of goods, protecting U.S. natural resources, promoting stability, deterring conflict, and responding to aggression. As global maritime commerce expands, populations increase, competition for energy and natural resources grows, and advanced military technologies proliferate across the oceans and through the littoral, so too will challenges arise for anyone operating in those regions. The American people will continue to rely on the Sea Services to respond to fast-changing and complex world events that threaten the security of the United States and our allies and partners. Our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen stand ready to meet these challenges with the same determination and responsiveness they have demonstrated for more than two centuries."

From the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues website: "The Ebola epidemic in western Africa has demonstrated that public health, and public health ethics, is global and not merely local. Recognizing that public health preparedness requires ethics preparedness, the Bioethics Commission sought to create recommendations that support policies and practices that enable a proactive response to public health epidemics. In 'Ethics and Ebola' the Bioethics Commission offers seven pointed recommendations related to engagement, infrastructure, communications, and integration; specifically, the Commission considers what lessons the U.S. response to the epidemic in western Africa has for ethics preparedness for future public health emergencies, and examines ethical dimensions of restrictive public health measures, the use of placebos for treatment and vaccine trials, and collecting and sharing biospecimens for future research. 'Ethics and Ebola' is a Commission-directed project."