Homeland Security And Homeland Defense

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed more than a decade ago with a very significant mission of safeguarding America's homeland from hazards, threats, and national disasters. This department conducts its mission through securing the country's borders, preventing terror attacks, and responding to incidents or threats to its citizens (Miller, n.d.). Generally, the most important roles of the Department of Homeland Security are to lead a concerted national effort in securing the United States and preserving the American way of life. The department was established in 2002 in reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks and has since developed a nationwide strategic plan for evaluating and updating its mission statement and effectiveness of operations. These plans can be updated and transformed to accomplish the needs of the Department for Homeland Security and the American people.

The concepts of Homeland Security and Homeland Defense, although have similar missions, tasks, responsibilities and operations, are very different. This paper will take a look at Following the both Homeland Security and Homeland Defense separately and well as how they work together to secure the United States

The idea of securing the nation’s borders and securing the safety of the citizens has been a major topic since the beginning of the nation’s existence. There have always been means and procedures for it but it was never defined to the point it is today. The Homeland Security Department is a fairly new program which is constantly improving and adjusting in accordance to the threats that may arise. In the attempt to secure the United States, homeland security has become paramount and a lot of emphasis is being provided so as to ensure the safety of the borders and the citizens of the United States. So one must ponder what the difference between homeland security and homeland defense are since they both tend to mean the same

The White House, federal government, and the US Congress created the idea of homeland security following the events of September 11, 2001 (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2013). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is often associated with prevention and mitigation of terrorist actions. In reality, DHS is responsible for a much wider spectrum of hazards that pose a threat to the Nation’s safety and security. For example, DHS assists with creating and implementing newer building codes to increase their survivability during hurricanes. Through its oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), DHS ensures our Nation is prepared for natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, mud/rock slides, and tornadoes. DHS also assists

The Department of Homeland Security is task with a very important job of coming up with a critical infrastructure and key resources sectors in order to properly protect, withstand, and rapidly recover from all hazards whether is natural disasters or from a terrorist attack. Through a critical infrastructure set in place the Department of Homeland Security can provide strategic guidance to the public and private partners, encouraging national unity of effort, as well as coordinating the overall federal effort to promote the safekeeping and spirit of the United States (The Department of Homeland Security, 2015). The department of Homeland Security’s approach to identifying all the Critical Infrastructures and Key Resources Sectors,

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was an unusual development in the history of American government. It was established in the wake of the attacks upon the Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The ability of terrorists to perpetuate the attacks was blamed, at least in part, upon a failure of law enforcement agencies to pool information and other failures of intelligence-gathering. The Department was created to rectify those deficits. Counterterrorism; border safety; preparedness, response, recovery, immigration, and cyber-terrorism are the main foci of the Department. The stated mission of the Department is as follows: "We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce" (Smith & Moss n.d.).

In the past sixteen years the United States has seen significant changes to the national policies that protect the population and its critical infrastructure. Two main agencies that arose from the 911 Attacks were the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Homeland Defense (HLD). These two agencies are responsible for protecting countless potential terrorist targets, millions of citizens, and the thousands of miles of U.S boarders. How can two government agencies protect so many assets? This paper will explore the two agencies and identify key roles, responsibilities, resources, and operations. It will highlight the efforts shared between the two agencies and provide the authors own definition of the DHS. Lastly, this paper will identify our nation’s critical infrastructure and how it intertwines with the DHS and HLD, by discussing the resources needed to operate successfully.

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

First of all, after September 11th occurred the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) was created in an attempt to modernize and expand our security in different way. Some of the dif. One of the ways we are benefitted by the Department of Homeland Security is the security they provide for our infrastructure ("Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing"). There are many important

“We have learned as a Nation that we must maintain a constant, capable, and vigilant posture to protect ourselves against new threats and evolving hazards. But we have also learned that vigilance and protection are not ends in and of themselves, but rather necessary tools in the service of our national purpose.”(Napolitano, 2010, p.iv) In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 attacks our nation has taken upon itself extreme vigilance to ensure the security and defense of the American people. The relationship between homeland security and homeland defense is one that is tightly knit. Each has a very distinct mission set but somewhere along the spectrum they cross over and mutually support each other in the best interest of the nation.

Within the areas of Homeland Security and Homeland Defense lie specific primary missions, tasks, duties, and responsibilities of each. The primary missions, tasks, duties, and responsibilities of Homeland Security and Defense include preventing terrorism and enhancing security, securing and managing our borders, and enforcing immigration laws. In addition to those missions, a new and evolving mission is that of cybersecurity. In the future, is the department ready to tackle these tasks? The department has done a great job at preventing an attack ever since the attacks of 9/11. What types of challenges are faced in the future? The tools that are needed are there, it all depends on how the department moves forward and implements these actions.

Given the extreme variance of threats presented across the United States as well as its territories and the expensive nature of securing and protecting everything from citizens to critical infrastructure, a system has been developed in order to determine how to best manage risks and allocate resources to protect such elements. This system is composed of formula that has been devised in order to determine the risk to a potential target and the effects of various types of attacks. This formula will be broken down into its individual parts and analyzed. Once the formula has been broken down, the discussion will move to how that formula effects the operations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Further discussion will show how the DHS allocates its numerous resources in order to provide the best protection and security while minimizing cost and potential effects of an attack.

The Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national unity of effort to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure (The White House Office of the Press Secretary, February 2013). It is imperative for every nation to develop a critical infrastructure protection plan that will provide the essential services to its society. To archive this, a government must be proactive and coordinate its efforts that will reinforce and maintain secure, functioning, and

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.

The distinction between homeland security and homeland defense is pivotal in gaining a better understanding of how these agencies work and how they correlate to our nations infrastructure. We must understand the designated missions set forth for both these agencies while learning how they meet the tasks appointed to them and resources utilized to accomplish the mission. Learning the fundamentals of our nations infrastructure information must be provided to showcase how these agencies utilize the appropriate resources to guarantee the security of these critical infrastructures. Offering an opinion in the definition of homeland security and how resources are being utilized to fix vulnerabilities is vital to showcase what is being distributed and learned on a researchers and readers level. Homeland security and homeland defense play a pivotal role in ensuring our borders are protected.