Unit: A Discussion on Homeland Security Future and Evolving Challenges
Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.
This Discussion Board will examine developing and future threats and challenges that will affect the homeland security (HLS) enterprise (global Jihad, megadisasters, cyber, climate change, arctic policy, piracy, small vessel security, nodes of radicalization, pandemic, immigration, maritime, and insider threat) and look at developing a vision for sustaining the efforts into the future. The intersection of globalization and technology in the 21st century created an uncertain environment in the post-Cold War era. The homeland security enterprise was not borne out of thoughtful strategic introspection after the end of the Cold War, but rather it was more of a reaction forced upon the nation by the 9/11 attacks. Even then, the focus remained on a single issue, terrorism, until the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 opened the aperture of the nascent enterprise to a wider view: the realization that there are multiple threats from man and nature that can bring the nation to its knees. You will be expected to use prior course work research to provide insightful proposals for adapting the Enterprise to future challenges and to develop a vision for the future. Discuss the following:
How does terrorism stack against other manmade and natural threats? Should the United States continue its approach to counterterrorism?
How would you optimize the homeland security enterprise for the challenges and threats of the 21st century?
What should be the essential elements of a homeland security enterprise vision?
