Introduction
National security was not a popular concept until the 1930s and was only formally established in 1947 under the National Security Act. The Act merged the Department of War and the Department of Navy into a single unit known as the Department of Defense. The idea was to bring together the efforts of foreign affairs and the military policy, that at the time were two distinct governmental organizations into one overall concept. The homeland security idea was conceptualized following September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2010). The attacks made the nation see the need to increase its vigilance, lower its vulnerabilities, improve its preparedness, and strengthen its guard to minimize the risk of any future attacks. The government started the institutionalization of these needs with a series of solutions under the Homeland Security Act. The Act was enacted by Congress in 2003 and created the Department of Homeland Security.
The role of Department of Defense in Homeland Security
The mission of the United States Army is to protect the nation from all its enemies. The role of national security is not new to the department, and their activities in the role are categorized into homeland defense and civil support. Homeland defense main tasks involve protecting the country from airborne threats and surveillance while civil support includes providing help in domestic incidences and non-emergency events.
Protection from Airborne Threats
This involves countering of any aerial threats directed towards the United States territory, infrastructure, and domestic population. Although it has be seen that commercial aircraft loaded with fuel can be a potential weapon, the Department of Defense is mainly focusing on chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) weapons that could cause greater harm (Department of Defense, 2003). For the department to perform the task effectively, they require surveillance capability that will enable detection and tracking of internal and external threats. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) that focuses on aircrafts outside the country and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) that deals with aircraft coming into and flying in the country’s airspace do this. United States fighter aircraft are used to protect the country in case of any threats.
Surveillance
The Department of Defense has ships known as Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers that have excellent surveillance abilities of up to 90 nautical miles. The ships provide radar pictures of the United States coasts and protect its coastal cities. The department also uses low-level surveillance technology that provides sufficient wide coverage and low altitude radar pictures.
Support in Domestic Incidences Management
In emergency circumstances such as terror attacks and catastrophes where the department may be asked to step in and offer support to civil authorities. This mostly happens when the other agencies have exhausted their resources or require capabilities that only the department of defense can offer. An example is the Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force (CBRRT) that help local agencies deal with chemical and biological terror attacks.
Support in Non-Emergency Events
The Department of Defense can also offer help in non-emergency events of planned duration like the New York Marathon. In this situation, the department works under the agency in charge and provide threat detection services. Any request made to the military for support must be evaluated against several criteria. The criteria involve; the legality of the assistance, the ability and readiness of the department to offer the assistance, how safe are the military personnel in performing the task, who will pay for the cost incurred by the department, and is there any potential use of force scenarios by or against the department’s personnel.
The role of Department of Homeland Security in National Security
The Department of Homeland Security has five primary missions; build security and prevent acts of terrorism, manage the borders of the country, enforcement and administration of the United States border laws, safeguarding cyberspace, ensuring resilience to disasters and catastrophes that might affect American citizens. Different tasks and responsibilities have been attached to the missions to make them successful.
Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security
The terrorism threat is continuously evolving and persistent requiring the growth of the Department of Homeland Security to be able to interdict threats as early as possible. A multi-layered detection system that focuses on enhancing threat identification, and information sharing is used to do this. Effective and prompt information sharing whenever possible is crucial in adding value to homeland security. The department works with communities that are likely targets of recruitment by violent extremists through community policing efforts to help in identification of terror suspects. The department also uses a risk-based approach to screen passengers in commercial flights using a range of measures for both seen and unseen threats. In the protection of surface transport, the department has deployed teams comprising personnel with inspection and behavior detection expertise to avert any potential terrorist attacks.
Securing and Managing Borders
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for the protection of the United States’ air, land and sea borders. The department does this using three strategies; providing effective security for all the borders, promoting safe and streamlined lawful trade and travel, coordinating with other federal agencies to destroy transnational terrorist groups.
Ensuring Resilience to Disasters and Catastrophes
The main objectives of this mission are to ensure that the people of America understand the potential risks they face, are prepared for the hazards, can survive, and recover quickly from the disruptions. The department achieves the goals using four emergency elements response; disaster mitigation, enhanced preparedness, efficient emergency response, and quick recovery.
Safeguarding Cyberspace
The Department of Homeland Security is the American government’s lead agency in safeguarding civilian and government systems (Napolitano, 2012). These IT systems are important to various sectors and are responsible for running the economy. Increased incidences of cyber security issues observed in the past decade calls for robust security measures. The department analyzes and prevents cyber threats, relays potential threats warnings, and solutions to the cyber incidences.
The responsibilities shared by both homeland defense and homeland security include prevention of terrorist attacks, air borders protection, and disaster response. My definition of homeland security is, the joint effort by different federal agencies to monitor event happening inside and outside the country to predict potential terror attacks and other hazards, and mitigate or minimize their damage.
United States’ Critical Infrastructure
Critical infrastructures are systems, networks and assets that are considered to be the backbone of the country. There number of critical infrastructure sectors in the United States are 18 (Hart & Ramsey, 2011). These infrastructures are crucial to homeland defense and homeland security because an attack on them could significantly affect security, the national economy, public health and safety or any combination of the services mentioned above. This makes the infrastructures a target of most terrorist attacks and their protection should be a top priority for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
Resources Required to Protect Critical Infrastructure
The resources required to protect critical infrastructure include local government agencies such as the local police department and the United States Department of Homeland Security Protective Security Advisor. These are specialists in critical infrastructure protection based in locations with high infrastructure concentrations. They work as liaisons among different sectors, assessing and providing information on risk factors, and coordinate protection and resilience efforts.
The Congress involvement in setting critical infrastructure standards and risks is mainly based on ideas that are completely unrelated to sound risk notions. Policymakers are also using criticality as an excuse to pour resources into all infrastructures. Some private entities have also raised concern about sharing their sensitivity information concerning their critical infrastructure projects with government authorities. This has caused flow impediment between the private sector and public sector agencies.
Solutions to the Problems
A congressional process for needs to be developed to ensure that the proposed legislative initiatives are based on actual risks. All entities who deal with critical infrastructure should come together to decide what should be termed critical (McNeill & Weitz, 2010). Information sharing between the government security agencies, the private sector, and small and medium businesses should be encouraged.
References
Hart, S., & Ramsey, J. E. (2011). A guide for homeland security instructors preparing physical critical infrastructure protection courses. The Journal of the NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Retrieved from https://www.hsaj.org/articles/59
McNeill, J. B., & Weitz, R. (2010, April 27). How to fix homeland security critical-infrastructure protection plans: A guide for congress. Retrieved April 6, 2016, from Heritage, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/04/how-to-fix-homeland-security-critical-infrastructure-protection-plans-a-guide-for-congress
Napolitano, J. (2012). Statement for the Record of U.S Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/316592/Wk2%20Readings/Testimony-Napolitano_2012.pdf
U.S Department of Homeland Security. (2010). Quadrennial Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/316592/Wk1%20Readings/DHS%20QHSRR-2010.pdf
