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'Who's in Charge?' New Challenges in Homeland Defense and Homeland Security
"A secure homeland is the nation's first priority and is fundamental to the successful execution of its military strategy. The U.S. military will continue to play a vital role in securing the homeland through military missions overseas and by executing homeland defense and civil support missions, and supporting emergency preparedness planning activities. However, it is critical to understand the distinction between the role DOD plays with respect to national security and the role of DHS as lead federal agency (LFA) for Homeland Security (HLS), as defined in the National Strategy for Homeland Security. With this paradigm in mind, this article describes the approach approved in the DODHLS Joint Operating Concept (HLS JOC) that describes how DOD intends to perform its responsibilities associated with securing the homeland, to include homeland defense and civil support missions, and supporting emergency preparedness planning activities."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Goss, Thomas J.
2006
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Changing Homeland Security: Shape Patterns, Not Programs
"What is a homeland security future worth creating? After enough discussion, the homeland security community could probably agree on the broad outlines of a desirable future. Eventually the community could develop a strategy for implementing that vision. But as the years passed, the vision would encounter reality. Homeland security strategy - defined as the pattern of consistent behavior over time - is both intentional and emergent. The homeland security community does a continually improving job identifying and enacting intended strategy. The community is less effective explicitly acknowledging and integrating emergent strategy. We can do better. Getting to a desirable homeland security future will be somewhat like driving at night. We know broadly what our destination could be. But we see only as far as our headlights shine, and we do not know what we will encounter on the road. This essay describes a framework that can help keep the homeland security community in between the white lines on the road to the next ten years. The article recommends a strategic process that incorporates the dynamic realities of complex adaptive systems. It asserts that recognizing and managing systemic patterns - rather than focusing on programs - would benefit homeland security."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bellavita, Christopher
2006-10
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Basic Practices Aiding High-Performance Homeland Security Regional Partnerships
"One national priority under the National Preparedness Goal is collaborative geographic regional approaches. This article identifies several basic practices intended to facilitate forming and sustaining a high-performance partnership that should be useful for these collaborative approaches. These practices draw on collaboration, coordination, partnership, and performance management literature and reports. The practices are in two categories: strategic and enabling. The strategic practices value and justify the partnership. Strategic practices are (1) implementing a formal regional partnership; (2) assessing the value and content of a regional partnership on an ongoing basis; and (3) defining and articulating a common mission and specific regional partnership strategic outcomes. The enabling practices support developing, implementing, and sustaining the partnership. Enabling practices are (1) having leadership to champion commitment to a regional partnership and high-performance; (2) crafting the regional partnership's organizational infrastructure and norms to perform effectively; (3) developing joint regional strategic goals, objectives, measures, and strategies across regional jurisdictions to accomplish the strategic outcomes; (4) providing resources from both joint and individual regional partner sources to initiate and sustain the regional goals, objectives, and related strategies; and (5) setting a regional partnership performance management system for outcomes and individual performance management systems to reinforce partnerships. The practices are intended to serve as aids as jurisdictions enhance current regional arrangements or build new ones. They might be considered the base set on which to build or assess regional homeland security approaches. The article also points to additional avenues of research, such as criteria to form a geographic region, dealing with 'free rider' partners, and specific homeland security partnership skills and capabilities."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Caudle, Sharon L.
2006-10
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Unified Command and the State-Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi
"Unified Command, as a part of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), was successfully used in the state-federal response to the catastrophic disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi in 2005. Four elements to determine the members of a Unified Command include: authority, co-location, parity and common understanding. Modifications made to ICS in the Mississippi response include extending the unified command concept down the chain to facilitate joint decision-making at all levels. Unresolved issues include the role of the Federal Coordinating Officer and Principal Federal Official, federal management of multi-state disasters, and the inclusion of components of the Department of Defense in a Unified Command."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Carwile, William L., III
2005
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Changing Homeland Security: An Opportunity for Competence
"Hurricane Katrina shattered belief that the nation's homeland security system was ready for a major terrorist attack. Public administrators staff that system. Katrina provides an opportunity to review the central normative premise of public administration: competence. This article briefly reviews the changing competence frameworks that have guided public administration since the 1880s. Over the last one hundred years, administrators have been seen as artisans, scientists, social reformers, and managers. The ineptness of the public sector's response to Katrina reminds us - however briefly - that for the last 30 years, government has been seen as the enemy, the problem to be solved - not the partner in finding solutions. The result is a demoralized and dysfunctional public workforce. The American homeland can never be secure until the public workforce recreates the spirit of competent service so glaringly absent in the wake of Katrina."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bellavita, Christopher
2005
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Using Organizations: The Case of FEMA
"FEMA was used once before, under President Reagan, for counter-terrorism and as a result, natural disaster response and mitigation suffered. It was repaired under President Clinton, but again, counter-terrorism has eaten up FEMA's natural disaster budget and skills. This document includes a review of FEMA's history, and offer some possible explanations for its failures in 2005."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Perrow, Charles
2005
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Changing Homeland Security: The Issue-Attention Cycle
"The July 7, 2005 attacks on London inescapably direct public attention to our own transportation system. But eventually - as happened after the Madrid bombings in 2004 - public vigilance will wane. This can be seen as an affirmation of the profound trust Americans place in their public safety professionals. It is also the natural dynamic of the Issue Attention cycle, in which certain issues follow a predictable five stage process: pre-problem, alarmed discovery, awareness of the costs of making significant progress, gradual decline of intense public interest, and a post-problem stage. Before the London attacks, Homeland Security was on the cusp of the fifth and last stage. Unless the U.S. is attacked again, we will continue into Stage Five once the waves from the London bombing recede. In the absence of an active national consensus that terrorists are a clear and present threat to the lives of average Americans, the dynamics of the Issue-Attention Cycle are as inevitable as the seasons."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bellavita, Christopher
2005
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Why Strategy Matters in the War on Terror
"In labeling its post-9/11 efforts the 'war' on terror, the United States invoked a war metaphor that ties its success or failure to the doctrinal rules of war. This paper follows that metaphor and looks at the war on terror from the vantage point of the strategic issues that must be addressed if the United States is to, first, avoid the strategic mistakes of Vietnam and, second, transform its efforts from the industrial age to the information age. It examines the issues along five lines of inquiry: definition, doctrine, policy, strategy, and transformation. Its conclusion is that the United States must clearly define the strategy and terms of this war on terror if it is to avoid being defined - as a nation - by the strategy and terms set by its enemies."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Reed, Donald J.
2006-10
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Hurricane Katrina as a Predictable Surprise
"The paper asks whether the preparation and response of federal agencies in New Orleans to Hurricane Katrina was a predictable surprise. The discussion examines the role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in preparing the levee protection system, asking whether its organizational processes supported surprise-avoidance, or were surprise-conducive. FEMA's Katrina response is also reviewed with the same concerns. The actions of each agency are considered along four characteristic traits of predictable surprises. The study offers several policy proposals, some presented by the Secretary of Homeland Security and others stemming from insights developed in the current analysis."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Irons, Larry
2005
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Department of Defense as Lead Federal Agency
"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many, including the president, have called for serious public discussion over whether the U.S. military should take over what has been historically a civilian governmental function of catastrophic incident response. The author addresses many of the complex legal and policy issues surrounding this shift in government responsibility and accountability. These issues relate to challenges to the concept of federalism, state sovereignty, gubernatorial authority, and to the constitutional underpinnings of our government. This article calls into the question the public's ultimate willingness to accept an expanded use of federal military forces on U.S. soil. The author provides specific recommendations for rebuilding a more viable and cohesive federal and state civilian response capability, through building solid, day-to-day working relationships between the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Gereski, Kathleen J.
2006-10
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Federalism, Homeland Security and National Preparedness: A Case Study in the Development of Public Policy
"Since the events of September 11, 2001 all levels and branches of government have been focused on how best to assess national preparedness so that appropriate resource decisions can be made to enhance the nation's ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from major catastrophic events. In nearly all national-level policy documents dealing with homeland security, particular mention is given to the principle of federalism as the foundation of American government and governance. However, as the development of public policy related to homeland security evolved, one became aware that federalism meant (and means) different things to different agencies, branches, and levels of government. As the nation has not faced this large a governance challenge since the end of the last world war, ensuring a balanced perspective of federalism is in place as homeland security policy evolves is a necessary condition for ensuring the safety of the nation and its citizens. Observation of intergovernmental relations and the associated actions of different levels of government in this policy arena indicate three dominant theories of federalism exist and are in conflict. Those theories are Cooperative Federalism, Coercive Federalism and Competitive Federalism. What is suggested by the literature and the qualitative analysis of associated intergovernmental relations is that a more normative theory of federalism is appropriate - a theory that incorporates the constructive attributes of each theory, while mitigating the negative manifestations of each; a theory whose fundamental attribute is collaboration."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Clovis, Samuel H., Jr.
2006-10
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Right-Wing Group Characteristics and Ideology
"In the post 9-11 world, terrorism has been primarily associated with the external threat from radical Islamic extremists. Prior to September 11, 2001 the single most destructive weapon of mass destruction in the United States was the Ryder truck bomb built by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Both McVeigh and Nichols harbored extreme right-wing anti-government beliefs they felt justified the bombing. A high level of anti-American government sentiment was a common element shared by McVeigh, Nichols, and the al Qaeda terrorists on the 9-11 aircraft. This article asks if the threat of violence by right-wing extremists, including their possible deployment of weapons of mass destruction, has been neutralized. Information to better understand the level of threat posed by right-wing groups includes the need to understand their ideology and history, along with a review of past and present individuals who influenced the growth and development of the radical right, including the following groups: Christian Identity; militias; Sovereign Citizens, Freemen, and Common Law Courts; Ku Klux Klan; neo-Nazis; and Skinheads."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Baysinger, Timothy G.
2006-07
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Another Question Concerning Technology: The Ethical Implications of Homeland Defence and Security Technologies
"This essay begins to provide a unified moral reckoning with the way in which ideas concerning technological progress have altered the rules of military engagement and the implementation of homeland security. It will address both military technologies and technologies that secure the homeland, since the development and use of these technologies are vulnerable to the same ethical pitfalls. First, this essay employs Just War theory as a theoretical frame in which to situate the discussion and argues that the technology associated with precision guided munitions (PGM) only open the possibility of ethical discrimination and proportionality, but in no way insure that these possibilities will be actualized. Second, it begins to expose the relationship between the increasing popularity of PGM technology and the rhetoric that is used to describe contemporary military conflict. If precision weaponry is assumed to be inherently ethical, it may grant policymakers and strategists the chance to conflate the description of tactics with the prescription of normative judgements. Several case studies are employed to demonstrate this point. The second half of the paper asks if the technological progress that has come to define homeland security may lead to similar ethical difficulties in the fields of intelligence and law enforcement. It explores the way in which military technology and rhetoric might be redeployed in the domestic sphere. The questions concerning PGM and homeland security technologies and their moral implications are also 'questions concerning technology'-an interrogation of the moral and epistemic assumptions that seem to accompany and validate technical capabilities. It is a question that strikes at the heart of homeland security."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Kaag, John Jacob
2008-01
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Recent Patterns of Terrorism Prevention in the United Kingdom
"The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) was the basic internal security threat to the United Kingdom over the past 100 years. In particular, more than 3,600 people died during the 'Troubles' (1969-1996). However, authorities no longer consider Irish paramilitary organizations the country's major terrorist threat. The major terrorist challenge to the UK today comes from international terrorist groups affiliated with al Qaeda. Until recently, the nexus of the affiliation with al Qaeda was Pakistan and Afghanistan. Recent attacks suggest a nexus with Iraq as well. However, the emergence of a new threat such as al Qaeda does not mean that intelligence analysts' thinking, conditioned to meet one threat, e.g. PIRA, adjusts readily to the new threat. The analysis here highlights this issue in the recent patterns of terrorism prevention in the UK. Three agencies make up the national intelligence and security services in the UK, The Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)-the nation's external intelligence agency overseen by the foreign secretary; the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)-which develops signals intelligence, also overseen by the foreign secretary; and the Security Service (MI5), which operates under the authority of the home secretary to conduct surveillance operations. Observers often refer to the three services as the Agencies. MI5 has no arrest powers of its own, meaning its effectiveness in preempting terrorist operations depends largely on collaboration with the Special Branch (SB) of local police forces', especially the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Branch (MPSB)."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Irons, Larry R.
2008-01
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Changing Homeland Security: The Year in Review 2007
"As New York City and the nation prepared to remember the sixth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the talk started about September 11th fatigue: 'a weariness of reliving a day that everyone wishes had never happened.' 'I may sound callous, but doesn't grieving have a shelf life?' one person asked. 'We're very sorry and mournful that people died, but there are living people. Let's wind it down.' That gets my vote for 2007's most startling homeland security story. One gets startled when something happens one was not expecting. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised. I spoke with a lot of thoughtful homeland security professionals last year. […] Their responses present a snapshot of Homeland Security 2007 as captured by people who work with and think about these issues all year. Their ideas remind us of the continuing debate about the meaning, scope, and effect of homeland security. Not every important topic or trend is mentioned. What is cited, however, outlines the still emerging terrain of homeland security. Intelligence-arguably the core of preventing another major attack-was a significant issue in 2007. Several national intelligence estimates and related products revealed more information about 'the threat' and about how the intelligence community does its work. Unsurprisingly, the more one knows about this element of the nation's security, the more questions are raised. Can we rely on the accuracy and objectivity of intelligence generated by government? How does intelligence actually help the nation be better prepared?"
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bellavita, Christopher
2008-01
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Evaluating the Impact of Contextual Background Fusion on Unclassified Homeland Security Intelligence
"The 2007 National Strategy for Information Sharing recognizes that state, local, and tribal governments 'carry out their counterterrorism responsibilities within the broader context of their core mission(s)…' In order for this national strategy to be successful, intelligence provided to these state, local, and tribal recipients must also be presented within the context of these core missions. Multiple initiatives have ensured that these non-traditional recipients (NTR) in law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services (EMS), emergency management, public health, and the private sector are now receiving unclassified intelligence products from multiple sources including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Fusion Centers, Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF), and Terrorism Early Warning Groups (TEWG). However, simply pushing intelligence products to non traditional recipients (NTR) is not enough. As discussed in a Markle Foundation Working Group Report, Networking of Federal Government Agencies with State and Local Government and Private Sector Entities, '…adequate context for homeland security providers to effectively utilize information is specific, tailored for each local entity, rapidly disseminated, and does not overburden recipients with vague or irrelevant information.' The Final 9/11 Commission Report noted the importance of context in decision making, reporting that the president was provided intelligence 'news without… much context' prior to September 11, 2001, contributing to a failure of decision makers to recognize that Bin Laden posed a 'novel danger.' This paper does not attempt to determine whether providing classified or unclassified intelligence to NTR is an effective strategy."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Eaneff, Charles
2008-01
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Changing Homeland Security: What Should Homeland Security Leaders Be Talking About?
"There is little political will to substantially alter the organizational and programmatic system that characterizes U.S. homeland security. The system we have is the one we have to work with, at least until something significant happens: another attack, a catastrophic natural disaster, a national public health emergency, or a new political administration. If the country is not attacked again, if there are no more national traumas, then incrementalism is a cautious and appropriate way to improve homeland security. The next serious national incident will create an environment that supports, if not demands, substantial change. What should or could those changes be? Responses to this question will emerge from conversations among people who care about homeland security when it is not at the top of the nation's policy agenda -- people like those who read Homeland Security Affairs. This article invites readers to participate in an experiment to answer the question: What should future-thinking homeland security leaders be talking about now, and why? To initiate the conversation, this article offers readers a basic homeland security literacy test and outlines three big-picture perspectives that can frame conversations about the future of homeland security: strict constructionism, middle-of-the-road moderation, and radical reconstructionism."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bellavita, Christopher
2006-07
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Development of an Outcomes-Based Undergraduate Curriculum in Homeland Security
"As a professional discipline, homeland security is complex, dynamic, and interdisciplinary and not given to facile definition. As an academic discipline, homeland security is relatively new and growing, and its workforce aging. As such, there is an acknowledged need to develop academic homeland security programs to try and meet anticipated workforce needs. However, the lack of an accreditation system or a set of available published outcomes (or standards) have complicated efforts towards homeland security program development. At present, determining which courses to teach and which outcomes in each course to pursue must be left to anecdotal conversations, reviews of the scant textbooks available, and idiosyncratic experience and judgment. Consequently, as homeland security programs have proliferated throughout the country even a cursory review of these programs on the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) website reveals an uneven and inconsistent set of core student outcomes. Using practicing professionals in a variety of homeland security areas as subject matter experts, this study was designed to elucidate a set of core academic areas and student learning outcomes that could characterize the intellectual underpinnings of the discipline and the outcomes on which an undergraduate degree in homeland security could be based."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Raffel, Robert; Ramsay, James D.; Cutrer, Daniel
2010-05
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Homeland Insecurity: Thinking about CBRN Terrorism
"As the U.S. government has seen a change of administrations, there is an opportunity for a constructive review of how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has addressed the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism in terms of policy development and execution to date. Our current homeland security approach to CBRN terrorism seems to have its basis in the incidents of 9/11 and the U.S. anthrax attacks in October-November 2001. However, our history of homeland defense goes back to 1941 (at least); to understand from a policy perspective how the government ought to address domestic CBRN terrorism, we need to put it all in context. This essay examines the issues of how DHS has prepared for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism incidents. DHS should address these threats in a consistent and holistic manner, but instead the federal government has developed singular hazard-based approaches to each threat. DHS has not assessed its efforts to address CBRN terrorism or identified where DHS could improve, and as a result we see merely the continuation of previous initiatives. The essay concludes with some recommendations on how DHS could improve this area with better policy practices."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Mauroni, Albert J., 1962-
2010-09
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Homeland Security and Support for Multiculturalism, Assimilation, and Omniculturalism Policies among Americans
"This article presents data suggesting that Americans' views of policies toward immigrants are pertinent to matters of homeland security. 'Homeland' is a concept shaped partly by how people psychologically differentiate 'citizen' from 'immigrant.' The differentiation of these categories is critical to individuals' political and social identity. Homeland security scholars are unlikely to be aware, however, of this country's substantial majority preference for an alternative to the traditional, yet deeply divided, incompatible policies of assimilation and accommodation. Moreover, the publics' appraisal of the threat of terrorism, the priority they assign to homeland security institutions, their trust and confidence in homeland security organizations, and their support for counter-terrorism measures are linked to their immigration policy preference even after accounting for their race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Homeland security professionals would do well to consider the potential implications of these preferences."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Moghaddam, Fathali M.; Breckenridge, James N.
2010-09
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Same Priorities, Different Perspectives: Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff on Homeland Security
"Former Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff have each published historical retrospectives on homeland security and their experiences leading the government's newest department. In this review, Ms. Blum discusses the highlights of each book and provides a comparative analysis. While Ridge focuses on the politics of homeland security, his own internal struggles, and the state and local perspective, Chertoff focuses on placing Islamic terrorism in its proper historical context and the capabilities of the federal government to solve homeland security problems."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Blum, Stephanie Cooper
2010-01
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Letter to the Editor: Twelve Questions Answered
"In January 2010, Christopher Bellavita asked twelve questions regarding homeland security. Samuel H. Clovis, Jr., of Morningside College offers an answer to each of these questions in this letter to the editor of Homeland Security Affairs." From the article: "As has been argued in seminars, around conference tables, and in the field, we as a community are still struggling with exactly what homeland security really means. In discussing this topic with practitioners and academics around the country, I find that perspectives shape responses. At the risk of over generalizing, those with homeland security responsibilities at the national level tend to focus on terrorism with natural or non-terror man-made disasters a distant secondary focus, while those at the state and local level have exactly the opposite view. There are clearly exceptions to these stances, but those exceptions are few and far between. Thus, the discussion of what exactly homeland security is or should be provides fertile ground for philosophical discourse. Given the above, individual perspective might shape how one might respond to these questions. Certainly my perspective, one of considerable sensitivity to state and local conditions, shapes my response. In articles written by me and published in this journal, I have argued very strongly that this disconnect in perspective lies at the very crux of some of the more troubling difficulties the nation faces in gaining as high a level of preparedness as possible. With that crystallized perspective in mind, I will attempt to address each of Dr. Bellavita's questions."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Clovis, Samuel H., Jr.
2010-05
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Letter to the Editor: Federal Nuclear Preparedness and Response Measures Reflect New Modeling Paradigms
"A response to Robert Harney's article, 'Inaccurate Prediction of Nuclear Weapons Effects and Possible Adverse Influences on Nuclear Terrorism Preparedness,' published in Homeland Security Affairs VI, no.1 (September 2009)."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Casagrande, Rocco; MacKinney, John; Bader, Judith
2010-01
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Homeland Security-Related Education and the Private Liberal Arts College
"Small private liberal arts colleges enjoy certain advantages when developing new academic programs, such as in homeland security-related education. These institutions offer students the opportunity to acquire a broad-based education in order to gain a holistic view of the world, a critical need in this age of global challenges. Smaller colleges can also adapt more quickly to changes in the marketplace and are able to develop new academic programs relatively quickly due to the ability to create effective partnerships between the faculty, who control the curriculum, and administration, which has the requisite knowledge regarding internal governance procedures and regulatory guidelines. At Notre Dame College these advantages have facilitated the institution's creation of certificate and undergraduate programs in intelligence studies and the development of a graduate program in security policy studies that is now going through the state approval process. Notre Dame College's experience in academic program development within the emerging disciplines of homeland security and intelligence education may serve as a template for other private institutions considering the creation of similar programs."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Moore, Gregory; Cronin, Kelley A.; Breckenridge, Mary B.
2010-05
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Homeland Security: An Aristotelian Approach to Professional Development
"Homeland security should avoid our era's widespread temptation to specialize. Instead it should develop the characteristics of a true profession. Homeland security education should focus on professional development. The characteristics of a profession can be cultivated through an Aristotelian process of understanding change, principled reasoning about how our actions can influence change, and disciplined reflection on the outcomes of action. Homeland security's fundamental purpose may be found in how this professional capacity can assist and support the broad range of specializations that are related to the field."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Palin, Philip J.
2010-05
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More is Better: The Analytic Case for a Robust Suspicious Activity Reports Program
"In his March 2009 testimony, Gregory Nojeim warned Congress of the potential danger to civil liberties posed by the government's suspicious activity report (SAR) program. But Nojeim, director of the Project on Freedom, Security, & Technology, raised another concern -- that 'the security 'bang per byte' of information gathered may be diminishing. While 'stove piping' was yesterday's problem, tomorrow's problem may be 'pipe clogging,' as huge amounts of information are being gathered without apparent focus.' [...]. A subsequent CRS [Congressional Research Service] study, in November 2009, endorsed Nojeim's suggestion questioning the need for a data-intensive program and made a similar recommendation: 'Congress may be interested in how a future SAR Program Management Office intends to address this problem -- specifically, which agency or agencies will be responsible for quality control of SARs [sic] to prevent system overload from irrelevant or redundant ones.' This article acknowledges the progress made in protecting civil rights -- an area of legitimate concern -- but rejects categorically the call to reduce or limit the size of the SAR program. Two analytic requirements for the collection of more rather than less information through the SAR process are presented, to increase the probability of identifying pre-operational terrorist activity and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of critical infrastructure protection regimes. In statistical analysis, more is better."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Steiner, James E.
2010-09
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Twitter, Facebook, and Ten Red Balloons: Social Network Problem Solving and Homeland Security
"This essay, the winner of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) Essay Contest in 2010, looks at how homeland security could benefit from crowd-sourced applications accessed through social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Christopher M. Ford looks at the apparent efficacy of two such endeavors: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) competition to find ten 8-foot balloons moored across the continental U.S. and Wired Magazine challenge to "find" author Evan Ratliff. Based on these and other crowd-sourced applications, Ford suggests that the U.S. government could utilize the internet and social networking sites to potentially solve an array of discrete problems through the active participation of interested citizens"
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Ford, Christopher M.
2011-02
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Exercise Evaluation Guides for Public Health Emergency Preparedness
"The purpose of this article is to provide standardized instruments called Exercise Evaluation Guides (EEGs) for two public health functions: Epidemiologic Surveillance and Investigation and Isolation and Quarantine." "The best forms of practice are exercises and drills that simulate reality as closely as practicable. 'The true value of exercises lies in the opportunities they offer to practice skills and make mistakes in a low-cost, low-risk, low-consequence environment compared with real catastrophes.' [...]. These EEGs are intended to aid judgment (1) of public health responder performance using the guides' check-lists and (2) of emergency response plans using the guides' planning sections. In addition to providing guidance for evaluators regarding actions they should expect to observe from responders, the EEGs present (1) performance measures that measure quality, as opposed to more commonly available measures of timeliness, or percent of effort completed and (2) planning elements to evaluate adequacy of response plans. The guides are particularly useful for evaluation because they rely on observations made by an independent third party, as opposed to assessment made by self-report. Evaluation done by an independent third party, who is neither playing in the exercise nor conducting it, is preferred to self-reported assessment because the former likely yields less biased, more credible performance data."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bradshaw, Christine C.; Bartenfeld, Thomas A.
2009-09
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Threat-based Response Patterns for Emergency Services: Developing Operational Plans, Policies, Leadership, and Procedures for a Terrorist Environment
"The purpose of this article is to consider how a number of operational and administrative skills and abilities, familiar to emergency services but not necessarily suited to meeting the current terrorist condition, should be re-examined and corrected. This article will demonstrate how those familiar elements are not isolated, independent issues, but are in fact parts of a continuum of the same problem (the threat) that must be addressed comprehensively to meet the requirements of, and to operate in, this new terrorist war-fighting environment."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Mahoney, Robert T.
2010-09
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Building Resilient Communities: A Preliminary Framework for Assessment
"This article moves beyond debating definitions of resilience, towards the development of a preliminary conceptual framework for assessing community resilience. We recognize that not all frameworks are created equal, nor do they satisfy all constituent audiences. The proposed framework presented herein is consistent with Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom's stated purpose of a framework: to 'identify the elements (and the relationships among these elements)...to consider for analysis...organize diagnostic and prescriptive inquiry...[and] provide the most general set of variables that should be used to analyze all types of settings relevant for the framework.' It does not outline a cookie-cutter solution for all communities to apply, but rather an approach that allows community leaders and policymakers to begin to think about resilience as it pertains to their own community's unique circumstances. While sacrificing operational specifics in the interim, it summarizes the core attributes of resilient systems (resource performance, resource diversity, resource redundancy, institutional memory, innovative learning, and connectedness) in the context of five key community subsystems (ecological, economic, physical infrastructure, civil society, and governance). Through the examination of each community subsystem, a preliminary, community-based, resilience assessment framework is proposed for continued development and refinement. In leading up to this conceptual framework, however, the article presents the definition of resilience used here, an argument for a community-based approach, and a description of what we believe the research shows are the core attributes of resilience within community systems."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Longstaff, P. H.; Armstrong, Nicholas J.; Perrin, Keli
2010-09
