The Role of Homeland Security in Terrorism

While terrorism will continue to be a constant threat to any civilized country, especially the United States, there are, thankfully, efforts specifically designed to counter terrorists and those like them. For the United States, there is a system in place known as Homeland Security. According to an article by Christopher Bellavita, Homeland Security is " a concerted national effort by federal, state and local governments, by the private sector, and by individuals to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur." However, this has its price.

The problem with Homeland Security is simply that it works a little bit too well. That is to say, it costs Americans a great deal of freedom to maintain the strict safety standards that Homeland Security maintains. In addition, an article by Bhaskar et al, mentions one of the most glaring drawbacks to Homeland Security in that it is focused entirely on the national level, and that the government often fails to share critical information among state and local governments. This has created a paradox of sorts, where Homeland Security tries extremely hard to keep its citizens protected from terrorism yet fails to provide for them some of the most basic human rights.

One of the most controversial issues revolving the use of Homeland Security as an anti-terrorism tool is the use of the military. These concerns are echoed by Risa Brooks, who states that the use of Homeland Security as a military tool (usually for the purpose of eliminating terrorists in foreign nations) could alter the purpose and culture of the military establishment and its relationship to American society . This means that, while the use of the military in Homeland Security might be beneficial, it comes with long-term negative effects. This sentiment is shared, to an extent, by Thomas Goss, who believes that there is a crucial distinction between the roles of the Department of Defense (who he believes should be responsible for most foreign affairs, including anti-terrorism operations) and the Department of Homeland Security, who should be focused on domestic terrorism. While Homeland Security is a necessary and effective anti-terrorism unit, it does have another drawback that should be considered for research, and that is its cost. Bart Hobijin mentions that, ever since the September 11 attack, Homeland Security has seen a huge increase in funding, with questionable results, and maintains that the needs of these budget increases should be examined, since the economy can scarcely afford excessive spending, especially when the results do not match the amount of money being poured into it.

The theoretical framework will revolve around a critical analysis of Homeland Security and its necessity, or lack thereof, in a nation that has become dominated by technology, much of which can subvert many of Homeland Security's defenses. The hypothesis to be tested is, quite simply, that Homeland Security, while an effective deterrent for terrorism, has too many drawbacks and weaknesses to warrant the extreme cost it requires in order to maintain it. This can be tested by examining the amount of funding (and in what areas) Homeland Security is receiving, then extrapolating that to the number of terrorist units that have been eliminated as a result of Homeland Security. If funding is indeed too high, alternate solutions to Homeland Security will be presented, and the pros and cons of these solutions will be weighed as well. The main point here is to critically examine Homeland Security and its role in terrorism.

Bibliography

Bellavita, Christopher. "Changing homeland security: What is homeland security?." Homeland Security Affairs 4, no. 2 (2008): 1-30.

Bhaskar, Rahul, Bhushan Kapoor, and Joseph Sherif. "Managing homeland security: deployment, vigilance and persistence." Kybernetes 41, no. 7/8 (2012): 1072-1086.

Brooks, Risa A. "The military and homeland security." Handbook of Military Administration (2007): 221.

Goss, Thomas, Barry Cardwell, and Jimmie Perryman. Who's in Charge? New Challenges in Homeland Defense and Homeland Security. NORTHERN COMMAND PETERSON AFB CO, 2006.

Hobijn, Bart. "What will homeland security cost?." Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review 8, no. 2 (2002): 21-33.

Kettl, Donald F. System under stress: Homeland security and American politics. SAGE, 2013.

White, Jonathan R. Terrorism and homeland security. Cengage Learning, 2010.