National Security And Homeland Security

The United States Department of Homeland Security also known as the DHS is a federal agency designed to protect the United States against threats. Its responsible for keeping and ensuring the safety and security of the nation from terrorist attacks and other disasters. The DHS has three independent branches consisting of the United states citizenship and immigration services which are to advance national security, to wipe out migration case overabundances, and to enhance client administrations.There is also the Federal Emergency Management Agency also knows as FEMA is to facilitate the reaction to a calamity that has happened in the United States and that overpowers the assets of neighborhood and state experts. The legislative head of the state

before then, branches if intelligences were established and disbanded voluntarily. Nonetheless, the first permanent branch of intelligence was created in 1880 by the navy and was referred to as the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), whose main intelligence was to collect intelligence concerning the operations of the foreign navies in all the time. Prior to the World War I, the Germans were able to send intelligence officers to collect information that was critical in sabotage America because “numerous bombings of cargo ships, munitions factories, and warehouses occurred in 1916.” (Logan, 2010, p.7). Since America lacked effective intelligence, it relied on the British intelligence to unveil that it was the German who were responsible for the bombing.

After World War II American intelligence had the need to be transformed. The inexperience along with bureaucracy and poor coordination among American intelligence officers obligated the United States intelligence community to change dramatically in order to confront the new challenges that emerged after the end of WWII. From Early America through WWI the intelligence system of the United States of America was involved in operations in which they had to construct intelligence systems virtually from scratch (Andrew 1995). Human intelligence was already developed, but with certain limitations and other intelligence disciplines were underdeveloped and very seldom sophisticated. After WWI America recessed and settled in a period of peace. The

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is third largest Executive Department of the Federal Government charged with protecting the security of American homeland. Its primary mission is to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reducing vulnerability to terrorism and minimizing the damage from potential attacks and natural disasters. The DHS was created by President G.W. Bush in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on America in 2001. It is relatively new agency that continues to evolve in the 21st century. In my chosen topic I will perform research on the history and creation of Department of Homeland Security, identify 3 of the 22 agencies within the DHS and describe their responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to define and give detailed information about Homeland Security in the United States. Exploration of this topic will enhance knowledge about DHS and help understand the responsibilities of the agencies.

The United States Department of Homeland Security is a section of the U.S. federal government that protects the United States on a daily basis. The Department of Homeland Security is for the protection of the United States of America from terrorist attacks, man -made accidents and natural disasters. This department also has made a scale of terrorism threat which goes from low to severe. The Department of Homeland Security was formed on November 25, 2002, following 9/11. September 11, 2001, was proof that America was as a target to terrorism like other countries and killed 2,977 people. It was 2002 when The United States Department of Homeland Security was formed. Following 9/11, George Bush announced the creation of the Office of

President George W. Bush promised that the new department would "improve efficiency without growing government" and would cut out "duplicative and redundant activities that drain critical homeland security resources (Edwards)." Goals are looked to as limits and thus is causing Homeland Security to subject themselves to failure. From the increasing number of incidents suggest that DHS is trying to act as a domestic police force on matters that do not relate to national threats. The Department of Homeland Security Duties is to work along side local law enforcement, and sometimes they have seniority over them. The goals for different organizations often change so when one, Homeland Security is trying to enforce their rules onto other, who have

The events of September 11th, 2001 forever changed the organizational make-up of Emergency Management. Prior to 9/11, FEMA was the premier organization in the United States that dealt with any sort of disaster management. While FEMA was not without its own particular struggles early on, it had grown into an effective program; often emulated by other Governments for its effectiveness. As the primary Emergency Management function for the United States it was afforded a cabinet level position; thus allowing direct access to the President (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011). Functioning as its own entity, FEMA was also able to spend its money as they saw fit, develop its own hierarchy, and most importantly; decide which natural disasters/emergencies to focus a majority of their resources on. Unfortunately for FEMA all of that was lost with the creation of The Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011), “In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when the Department of Homeland Security was established and FEMA lost its status as an independent agency, emergency management became a minor player” (p. 343). The shift from a focus on natural disasters, to a focus on terrorism has been detrimental for FEMA. First and foremost, FEMA lost its cabinet position and the direct line to the President that it was afforded. While funding was accelerated to DHS in quantities never before seen in emergency management, FEMA, being a subordinate of

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, immigration control and national homeland security have been issues of concern for both the national government and private citizens. In the wake of the attacks, a lot of articles were written about what the appropriate response should be to prevent another attack. In 2004, Mark Krikorian wrote an article for the Providence Journal entitled “Safety through Immigration Control” in which he contends that the only means to keep America safe from a follow-up attack is to strengthen and enforce immigration law to prevent terrorists from being able to enter the country. Edwidge Danticat, writing for The Nation in 2005, provides a juxtaposition to Krikorian’s stance in her essay “Not Your Homeland”, in which she describes her witnessing of the inhumane conditions many immigrants are forced to endure in the name of increased security to protect the country. She questions whether the added protections are worth the human cost we are paying by treating immigrants and refugees as guilty until proven innocent. At the crossroads of these two perspectives lies the question: what is the proper balance between national security and the humane treatment of immigrants?

Since the attack on the United States of America on 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established to aid the country in preventing such a horrific event or future threats from happening to the citizens. DHS has had a clean record so far and it seems to be doing a great job in deterring the terrorist’s threats from reaching the American population. There has been no serious terror attack on the United States soil since the establishing of DHS. This is not an easy feat since there are so many rules and agencies that feed intelligence, support, equipment, and personnel to this large department. To have coordination of over twenty-two agencies and ensure they are all working together is a task that may seem impossible but it is one that DHS has hit upon head-on. All the agencies must be aware of the intelligence and actions and risks that are prevalent so as to prepare themselves. Then the next hurdle is to gather intelligence and information from the citizens without violating the Patriot Act which protects the rights of the people. There is a fine line that must be monitored and not crossed in fear of interfering on someone’s rights. In some instances the people will not comply with DHS and therefore they receive a negative aspect from the population. If DHS is not able to gather intelligence from the people without infringing on their rights, what makes them so sure that the department will protect them?

The progression of military intelligence through the years is traced back to the Revolutionary War in 1775, courtesy of George Washington. “Through various re-incarnations, intelligence has played a key role in how the United States shaped their policies towards the armed forces and other countries” (The Evolution of the U.S. Intelligence Community-An Historical Overview). Intelligence collection often waned during peacetime, but made drastic increases during wartime.

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

Intelligence is a dependable instrument of its own to generate information that establishes the base of National Security in the United States. Intelligence has been used since the beginning of history to provide information on enemy threats and how to prevent a mass disasters. It has been used for wars, national security, military tactics, etc. Intelligence has been available since the revolutionary war and our first president George Washington and other leaders of the world have used intelligence to protect their countries. Intelligence is the dominant and the backbone of homeland Security and it is ceaseless learning about it. National Intelligence agents train tirelessly to fight and create

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.

The difference between national security and homeland security seems to be ambiguous after reading the question. However, Newman (2002) indicated that homeland security as a subset of national security. From my perspective, homeland security, falls within the purview of a larger capacity of national security. Both national security and homeland security seeks to protect and defend the nation’s interest. One of the goals of national security is to thwart our enemies’ agenda by preventing the enemies from threatening the United States, and its partners with weapons of mass destruction, whereas one of the goals of homeland security is to Protect the United States people, the critical infrastructure, and key resources (Caudle, 2009).

Intelligence is one of the first lines of defense used by the United States to protect the Country against both foreign and domestic threats (Johnson, 2010). There are many ways and methods of intelligence collections employed by the intelligence community such as “spies, eavesdropping, technical sources, and openly available materials” etc (Clark, 2013). Method used also depends on many factors such as available resources, time, agency involved, and intelligence collection source. U.S Intelligence agencies use different collection and analytical method that suit their collection function, structure and pro¬cess. For example, DNI/OSC relies on open source (OSINT), CIA uses human intelligence (HUMINT) tactic, DIA uses measurements and signatures intelligence (MASINT), NSA employs signals intelligence (SIGINT), and NGA utilizes imagery intelligence (IMINT) techniques for their intelligence collections (Clark, 2013).