Homeland security

**ANSWER THIS QUESTION 250 WORDS MIN **

Describe the concept of homeland security and its relationship to homeland defense. What is the Homeland Security Enterprise, and who do you consider members or stakeholders across the three levels of government? 

**REPLY TO EACH ANSWER 100 WORDS MIN EACH**

1. In a study on combating terrorism, they defined the following list of desired characteristics of a national strategy document. “(1) purpose, scope, and methodology; (2) problem definition and risk assessment; (3) goals, subordinate objectives, activities, and performance measures; (4) resources, investments, and risk management; (5) organizational roles, responsibilities, and coordination; and (6) integration and implementation.” (Combating Terrorism, paragraph 1). It also mentioned in the study that these documents are not subject to executive or legislative order, which means they can address more than one issue. By following the list of desired characteristics, they can create a document with “desirable

characteristics to aid responsible parties in further developing and implementing the strategies” (Combating Terrorism, paragraph 1).  

The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (2017) is a very lengthy document as it should be. I found it interesting that a good part of what is a security document discusses promoting the American way of life and prosperity. I feel that goes hand in hand with homeland security and national defense. I feel, and I’m sure others would agree that war should be a last resort. If you can spread peace by humanitarian aid efforts and assisting foreign governments in achieving a democracy, then this should be the priority, as I feel it is in the United States security strategy. In a perfect scenario, if we could do this every time then there would be almost no need for military foreign action, for obvious reasons we all know that we don’t live in a perfect world. But like is said this should be the priority and I feel that it is. 

2. This week we are to describe the concept of homeland security and its relationship to homeland defense. What is the homeland security enterprise and who do you consider stakeholders across the three levels of government? To begin, In my opinion its best to describe both sides, according to our reading this week “the basic purpose of homeland security is to deal with the protection of American citizens and assets inside the United States, while homeland defense deals with the protection of American citizens and assets outside the United States” (APUS, 2020, pg 4). To best illustrate this relationship I will use the FY 2014-2018 Strategic Plan. In the very beginning of the plan it speaks of unity of effort or in other words it team approach. The relationship between security and defense of homeland using the team analogy is a good offense is good defense. Meaning in order to prevent or mitigate attacks on the United States various entities like the military are positioned around the world. The positioning acts as a few different features one and probably the most important is deterrence. Deterrence prevents those who seek to do harm against the US, from their positioning, posturing, staging, planning etc. Next it acts as an early warning, if posturing, staging or aggression does occur and deterrence fails, it allows the US enough time to respond or posture in preparation. Another feature which correlates with the second is intelligence gathering, being the deterrent and in good positioning it allows the US to collect necessary Intel aiding for good homeland security. Homeland security as our reading states protects those inside the US, this can be domestic threats or foreign. This is why we have agencies like the US Coast Guard and TSA along with others securing our boarders. As well as having agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigations and other law enforcement tackling the security of US and its citizens. Having both security and defense creates a well round team and is the reason why the relationship is there and essential to the overall Strategic Plan.

The Homeland Security enterprise is the Department of Homeland Security that is comprised of 22 different agencies taking on the five mission structures of Prevent Terrorism and Enhance Security, Secure and Manage our Borders, Enforce and Administer Our Immigration Laws, Safeguard and Secure Cyberspace; and  Strengthen National Preparedness and Resilience (DHS, 2015, pg 6). These 22 agencies work together to protect the United States and share responsibility accomplishing those missions and goals. The goal per the DHS is “one DHS, one enterprise, a shared vision, with integrated results-based operations” (DHS, 2015, para 2). Stakeholders is anyone that has an interest or can be potentially affected by an outcome, job person etc. Based off this across the three levels of government the stakeholders is every American. This is because first as government officials there is an oath and that is to defend the constitution of the United States. Furthermore, this affects everyone because Homeland security is everyone’s issue and per the Quadrennial Review “the Whole Community approach to national preparedness and resilience, which calls for the investment of everyone – not just the government – in preparedness efforts” DHS, 2015, pg 35). Have a good week.