Affiliated Institution
Introduction
The concept of Homeland Security was precipitated by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (Shawn 2013). According to the quadrennial homeland security review (2014), the goal of homeland security department and its partners is to build a safe, secure, and resilient nation. This goal is continuously threatened by the evolving nature of terrorism and natural disastrous among other risk factors. In order to mitigate the effects of the risks and threats to the safety, security, and resilience of the nation, the (Department of Homeland Security) DHS developed the five missions to help the department and its partners achieve its main goal. Security issues affect both the public and the private sector, hence the increasing the need for private sector involvement. The private sector has played a major role in providing relief and recovery during and after disasters. The private sector also needs to understand the nature of terrorism and its effects on the business environment in order to participate directly in the fight against terrorism. Therefore, the private sector’s impact on the five DHS missions relies on their understanding of the importance of a safe, secure, and resilient homeland. The private sector participates through different routes including relief and addressing daily threats to security and safety.
The Five Homeland Security Missions
Factors affecting Private and Public Sector Partnerships
In order to experience the full impact of the private sector involvement in homeland security and the achievement of homeland security missions, it is important to understand and resolve the factors affecting their involvement. According to McNeil (2010 p. 1), terrorism and natural disasters are not a one-time threat and expected to continue affecting the world. It is arguably said that homeland security coordinates risks because of its desparate stakeholders ( Shawn, 2013). Since the threats under the DHS are inevitable, there is a need for the society to be able to establish resilience, safety, and security through means that are both adaptive and innovative. The key players in the society need to work in partnerships to establish the most effective methods of achieving the objectives of the nation as a whole. However, the establishment of partnerships faces constant challenges that prevent the effective working such partnerships and that prevent the formation of such partnerships in some cases. According to McNeil (2010 p. 1), the formation of the partnerships is affected by the nature of decisions made and the nature of the partnerships. For example, McNeil (2010 p. 1) explains that when such partnerships are formed, they tend to be government dictated. She cites another reason as the nature of decisions as the government may be pushed to make decisions and policies that are of adversarial tones to the industry, (McNeil, 2010 p. 1). McNeil (2010 p. 1) also cites other reasons for the partnership problems as the need to protect the competitive advantage of industrial partnership and the need for the government to understand the marketplace competition.
There are several reasons as to why the private sector may choose whether to participate in such partnerships or not. According to Hayes and Ebinger (2011), there are four explanations for the private sector’s choice to either get involved in homeland security or not. These includes the financial considerations of terror protection, understanding the risks involved, public sector perception regarding the partnerships, and the availability of funds to address catastrophe and the aftermath. This brings to light the idea that private sector involvement is highly affected by the misunderstanding that the government should be responsible for catastrophic events coupled with the fact that the players may not clearly understand the risks involved. This implies that there is a need for the enlightenment of both participants in the private and public sector partnership on the importance of the partnerships and how to make them effective. This is in order to eliminate the problems affecting the partnerships and to enable the players to work together to achieve the security objectives and the five missions.
The role of the private sector
Risk management is one of the effective ways through which the private sector can participate and contribute towards the five missions. Risk management can be a pathway towards mitigating the effects of catastrophe. According to Brady and Porter (2014 p. 5), private sectors, precisely the construction industry, do not maintain risk management plan. Brady and Porter (2014 p. 6) opine that risk management cannot eliminate all risks. In the construction industry, risk management can be used to a means to prevent the effects of natural disasters such as hurricanes. The establishment of an effective risk management strategy will ensure a reduced effect of the disaster. A government-private sector partnership can help in conducting risk assessments and preparing for mitigate measures with the risk management plan. This will help increase the resiliency of the society against the natural disasters and reduces the losses incurred when the disaster strikes. According to McNeil (2010 p. 1), resiliency relies on the nature of relationships between the private sector and the public sector. Partnership I risk management increases the level of preparedness prior to disaster as the partners can anticipate and predict the effects of the events that may happen and prepare mitigating measures. McNeil (2010 p. 1) highlights the importance of the private sector in dealing with matters homeland security. The private sector’s impact in preparedness was crucial in dealing with the Zika virus. According to Yamada et al. (2016 p. 30), the pharmaceutical companies spend millions of money in preparing for disasters through the development of vaccines such as the Ebola vaccines. Yamada et al. (2016 p. 30) consider such contributions to be crucial to preparedness.
Another way through which the private sector can contribute towards the five missions is through employment policies. According to the QHSR (2014 p. 7), the DHS supports immigration laws that help prevent and discourage the hiring of undocumented immigrants. The DHS has established the employment of the undocumented immigrants as one of the reasons why they would choose to remain undocumented. As much as the immigrants can get employment, they will see no need for them to be documented. The private sector can contribute towards the achievement of the “secure and manage our borders” and the “enforce and administer our immigration laws” missions through development and adherence to company policies that promote documentation of immigrants. The DHS supports the citizenship for the undocumented workers within the nation borders, (QHSR, 2014 p. 7). Therefore, the private sector can contribute towards the homeland security missions by encouraging the documentation of their existing undocumented workers. This would greatly reduce the number of undocumented workers within the United States borders.
The private sector can also contribute to the achievement of the missions through innovation and help when the disasters strike. According to McNeil (2010 p. 1), the private sector has played a major role in developing innovative strategies to increase the safety of the homeland. Also, the private sector has contributed greatly by helping when such horrifying events occur. The private sector plays an important role in providing relief for the affected citizens and by providing equipment to the government in order to help the affected citizens. The private sector has also come up with security improvements that help safeguard the security of the nation and increase the resiliency of the society against terrorism and other threats. The private sector gets involved in the protection of the private property develop technology for the protection of the property through surveillance and increased security measures. However, according to Hayes and Ebinger (2011), this may result in the protection of terrorism. However, this can be reduced through community policing strategies that involve the government. By developing protective measures for the privately own property, the private sector protects the nation’s critical infrastructure in the process. Eckert (2005 p. 3) defines critical infrastructures as “those physical or cyber-based systems essential to the minimum operations of the economy and government.” These critical sectors include telecommunication, oil, and gas, among others. By protecting these sectors, the private sector directly contributes to the achievement of the five missions.
Recommendations
The DHS has a special unit with the responsibility of dealing with issues concerning the private sector. The private sector office (PSO) is responsible for the deals with issues relating to the private sector. It is meant to promote the partnership between the public and the private sector. It is also responsible for evaluating and analyzing policies to establish the economic impact of such policies. It also promotes the policies of the DHS to the private sector. This unit, through the DHS for a Day program, is also responsible for ensuring that the private sector understands how the DHS deals with security issues. The unit exists in order to ensure that the goals of the partnership between the DHS and its partners of creating a joint enterprise for improvement of security and mitigating measures are achieved. The private sector on the other has should take up the responsibility of complementing the work of the DHS in developing preventive measures and enabling the risk management units within the organizations to work efficiently towards similar goals. The partnership between the DHS and the private sector can only be effective if the partners play their role. In addition, the DHS should ensure that the private sector has the required support in terms of resources and information in order to process the correct mitigation strategies.
Conclusion
The private sector plays an important role in establishing preparedness for disaster and catastrophe. It also plays a major role in assisting the government deal with cases of insecurity and terrorism through the innovative technology. The sector also plays an important role in assisting victims after a catastrophe by providing financial and technological assistance. These contributions are very helpful in the war against terrorism and reduction of the impacts of catastrophe. However, there is still a lot that the private sector can do in order to assist the DHS to achieve its five important missions towards a secure, safe, and resilient America. Working in partnership with the government and understanding the important of the fight against terrorism will eventually work towards the benefit of all the partners involved. Therefore, the private sector can increase its support in this war through financial and policy-making measures.
References:
Eckert, S. (2005). Protecting Critical Infrastructure: The Role of the Private Sector. Guns and Butter: The Political Economy of International Security, in: P. Dombrowski (Ed.), Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, Colorado. http://www.ridgway.pitt.edu/portals/1/pdfs/publications/eckert.pdf
Hayes, J. K., & Ebinger, C. K. (2011). The private sector and the role of risk and responsibility in securing the nation's infrastructure. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 8(1). https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/04_critical_infrastructure_ebinger.pdf
McNeill, J. B. (2010). More Than Lip Service: Why Private Sector Engagement Is Essential. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/08/more-than-lip-service-why-private-sector-engagement-is-essential
Yamada, T., Ogawa, A., & Freire, M. (2016). Security spending must cover disease outbreaks. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0a1d/e5c4085bdff77283344bf9a6dde354be5255.pdf
Brady, T., & Porter, D. L. A. (2014). Reflections on the National Research Council’s Recommendations to Department of Homeland Security: Considerations for Coastal Construction Company Storm Hazard Risk Analysis. http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/37234002/Brady_-_Coastal_Construction_Company_Risk_Analysis_20140803.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1485703771&Signature=GO18ULyPOG3rei7EXWSmrTYuqaY%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DReflections_on_the_National_Research_Cou.pdf
Shawn R. (2013). Defining Homeland Security: Analysis and. Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy , 1-15.
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