International, Global, and Domestic Business Paper
Homeland security is a security organization based in the United States. It is responsible for the internal security of the country and its borders. It was formed after September 11, 2001 with a target to protect the citizens of the country against man made or even natural disaster. It was created to counteract terrorism. It broadens its activities to safeguard the border while maximizing on technology, work force, and other infrastructure in order to achieve control of the border (Martin, & Simon, 2008). It coordinates with the public and private sector to achieve success in its activities. Its strengths revolve around its ability to prepare, prevent, respond to, and recover from local crises. It also doubles up as the cyber security manager in the country (Martin, & Simon, 2008). Another successful part of homeland security that helps it attain its core aims is the fusion centers. They act as avenues for the other government departments to share intelligence that greatly assists homeland securities and the other departments. They include the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Military, and the Department of Justice.
Role of homeland security
On September 11, 2001, when the department of homeland security was formed, it was sworn to certain duties and roles. The first was to defeat terrorism globally. The government has also issued it with $5 billion to assist its counterparts worldwide to improve their own activities towards improving security. It also is responsible to strengthen the countries bio and nuclear security. It is responsible for managing disease outbreaks by linking key healthcare providers thus providing vaccines and new drugs. It also has at its disposal infrastructure that detects nuclear attacks therefore reducing the risk of attack. It also plays the role of information sharing and refining intelligence as earlier discussed. Analyst and researchers have noticed that information is the foundation of security. It is therefore their job to strengthen growth in gathering, analyzing and sharing intelligence to all departments involved in this activity. Forth is to ensure a safe worldwide digital information and infrastructure. Its other role is to address border security threats, which affects the air and port networks. Finally, it is to effectively manage crises and disasters.
Importance of this specialization regarding to security interest
The department of homeland security is vital in its existence to the whole world. The American citizens may benefit from it directly but its affects are appreciated in all parts of the continent. The sole government ministry specializes on terrorism alone. This may seem exaggerated, but considering the US governments activities in the Middle East, it is a called for security measure. Citizens all over the states were affected in one way or another in the September 11 attacks. With the knowledge that there are vast resources allocated to counter such activities, the citizens live more happily with that single assurance. In addition, before its creation, there was a vast void in information gathering and sharing. Other security agencies had a workload and did not have an avenue to share this resources and a unifying factor was urgently needed to take care of this. Homeland security formed the vital bridge that has continued to do this work and filled the gaping hole that was in the security industry.
How homeland security affects international business
The most important part of the homeland security mission is to enable free moving commerce. Notably, if the US economy comes at a standstill, the whole world would be adversely affected. The United States is home to many international companies. Their activities are linked to the entire universe. If the companies were to be affected, economies all over the world would feel the effects too. It is therefore the role of homeland security to keep the country secure from acts of terrorism and any natural or manmade disaster for the sake of the whole world. In addition, if international firms were affected in the United States, it would affect their international competitiveness. In such an event, there would tremendous unrecoverable losses that would hit the import and export companies, ports and logistic companies (Schaible & Sheffield 2012). It would also affect the incoming and outgoing investments like outsourcing and other activities.
How homeland security affects domestic business
The department of homeland security affects domestic business directly and indirectly. Directly, it is taken the burden of creating jobs through promoting innovation. It has a program that promotes participation in small business and innovation. It is known as Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) that is under the department of science and technology directorate (Workman 2012). They also ward young innovators with startup capital. This activity not only makes an impact on the domestic economy, but also has an impact on a young adult’s life. Indirectly, ample security in the local states promotes local businesses (Martin, & Simon, 2008). The department was created to protect the ordinary citizens of the United States and since local business is what local citizens depend on every single day, it is in their best interest to have this sector running smoothly.
References
Martin, L., & Simon, S. (2008) Formula for Disaster, The Department of Homeland Security’s Virtual Ontology: Space and Polity, 12 (3) 281-291.
Schaible, L. M., & Sheffield, J. (2012) Intelligence-led policing and change in state law enforcement agencies, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 35 (4) 761 – 784.
Workman, M. (2012) Validation of a biases model in strategic security decision making: Information Management & Computer Security, 20 (2) 52 – 70.
