External Threats to Homeland Security - Essay Example

 Homeland Security Terrorism has emerged as the single most important threat to the safety and security of countries.In recent times, terrorist organizations have perpetrated gruesome attacks on the world population to spread fear among the international community and forcibly create a consensus about their goals and objectives. The USA, inspite of being the most powerful economy in the world has not been any exception to this rule. In fact, in September 2001, the US population witnessed one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in the history of human civilization which had claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people. After this incident, the US Government implemented aggressive measures to counter terrorism and also ensure that such events were not repeated again. Nowadays, terrorist organizations do not restrict their activities to the countries of their origin. They have developed networks in almost all the economically powerful nations of the world, which help them to carry out terror attacks all across the world. According to the reports of the US intelligence agencies, a number of such global terrorist groups have their presence in the country and are successfully conducting their operations here. These militant groups naturally have the easiest access to the US economy and its population and thus pose to be a dangerous threat to the country’s internal safety.Although external threats still remain, homegrown terrorism is the greatest emerging threat to the United States homeland. The Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with other government agencies, must make preemptive efforts to mitigate the threat. In the 21st century, the US military forces have to be prepared to counter an increasingly wide spectrum of threats to the national security. These imminent dangers can originate from external antagonist sources as well as from internal home-grown terrorist groups. Although the origin of future security threats remains debatable, majority of the experts in this field unanimously agree that terrorism will remain the single most important potential danger in the coming days. During the last century, the entire international community has been subjected to a host of terrorist attacks which have claimed thousands of innocent lives. Security agency studies have predicted that this trend will continue in the future as well. Ever since the Al-Quaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the United States has intensified its efforts to counter terrorism and eradicate the terrorist groups completely. The US Homeland Security Advisory Council has set up a special cell called the ‘The Future of Terrorism Taskforce’ for this purpose. According to a report of the Taskforce, there is a high possibility that the US and its allied countries will experience an increase in the frequency and magnitude of terrorist activities in the near future. Thus, the Federal Government should consider ‘terrorism’ as a chronic problem and adopt a sustained evolutionary strategy to counter its ill-effects. In fact, there are international terrorist organizations which have established their bases in the country and conduct their militant activities centering round these operational camps.The after-effects of globalization, the polarization of the US economy and the rising income-inequality have all created a conducive atmosphere for these terrorist groups to flourish and expand their networks in the domestic territory. The US needs to be extra careful regarding these indigenous terrorist groups since they pose an immediate danger to the national security. (Lijn, 2011,p.2) American security experts have not been satisfied by the existing US Homeland Security System in the past. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had prompted the Federal Government under President Bush to implement a two-pronged strategy to counter global terrorism. On one hand the Government undertook a security intelligence operation to identify and locate the terrorist groups and their sponsors and then implemented an aggressive military strategy to eradicate them. Simultaneously, the US acquired a firm resolve to strengthen its homeland security so that it could prevent such dangerous terrorist onslaught in the future. Following this decision, the US Homeland Security Department implemented an ambitious security strategy across the country. This consisted of identifying the vulnerable areas in the US security and undertaking adequate measures to minimize these susceptibilities. It also required the countering of certain emergent threats in the US territories. Although, the Security Department had undertaken efforts to fulfill all these objectives, security experts felt that their performance has been inadequate in this field.According to the latter, the Homeland Security Department did not have adequate resources due to which their reactions to the potential internal threats have mostly been slow and inconsistent. The experts have identified the vulnerabilities in the US transportation systems and the border security networks which have remained till this day. The intelligence department has also continued to exhibit lapses, even after the September 2011 attacks. All these are major areas of concern for the Homeland Security Department. It needs to get its act together, formulate a new agenda and engage in its efforts of strengthening the national security with renewed vigor.Actually, in order to intensify the US domestic security network, the Security Department would have to monitor the activities in a number of areas. First of all, it will need to design an overall strategy to ensure that US intelligence and security systems are reformed adequately to detect the imminent threats to the national safety. The security systems should be able to transfer such vital information to the US armed forces in time for them to undertake suitable actions for dealing with these threats. The USA already has a critical infrastructure in place to keep a track of any dangerous signals in the country’s territories. The Homeland Security Department would only need to ensure the proper functioning of this infrastructural system. In the modern technological age, cyber security is another important area of the national security network.Computers have become a vital source of information for all sections of people including the members of the terrorist groups. In this case, the US Security needs to make sure that confidential information regarding national security should never be leaked into the public cyberspace. Further, the American domestic security needs to be prepared to deal with possible biological attacks implemented by the terrorist organizations. So far, the militant groups have used war weapons like guns and ammunition to carry out their acts of claiming innocent human lives to spread terror among the international community. However, there have also been instances of some terrorist groups using biological substances to harm members of the population. In 1995, the AumShinkriyo Cult perpetrated an attack using the deadly sarin gas on the Japanese people travelling in the Tokyo subway. Recently, US intelligence agencies have been flooded with reports of the Al-Quaedaplanning a dangerous onslaught on the US population with the help of anthrax. In such a situation, the Homeland Security needs to inform the US Federal Government so that it ensures a strong medical and health infrastructure to deal with any such biological attack.The hospitals and the medical centers should have adequate resources to attend to people, injured in such dangerous attacks. Apart from these, the US Homeland Security Department needs to strengthensome mandatory areas of domestic security like the national border and transportation safety and the overall intelligence network of the country.(Getting Homeland Security Right, 2010, p.3-10). The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a modern organization which is required to monitor the functioning of several intelligence agencies simultaneously. In 2005, Secretary Chertoff conducted a ‘Second Stage Review’ of the operations of the different components of DHS and suggested many beneficial alterations to the Department. Accordingly, the Federal Government restructured specific offices of the DHS and also allocated increased responsibilities to its intelligence agency. Chertoff appointed the ‘Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis’ as the Chief Intelligence Officer (CIO) of the DHS, who was responsible for monitoring all the intelligence activities undertaken by the different offices of the Department. The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) located at Washington D.C is affiliated to the US National Intelligence Community. The I&A operates on the basis of an intelligence cycle which provides sound support to the DHS’s Secretary and its team of leaders. It works in collaboration with the NCTC (The National Counterterrorism Center) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and other well-known intelligence organizations to accomplish its objectives.The Office of the I&A is also responsible for coordinating the country’s confidential security information with its partner agencies operating at the ‘state, local, tribal and private sectors’ of the economy. From May 2006 onwards, the I&A has also been operating as the executive branch for the Intelligence/Surveillance/Reconnaissance (ISR) office of the DHS. The Office of the I&Aitself is divided into seven divisions, each of which perform various intelligence functions to facilitate the operations of its parent office. The Current Intelligence Division undertakes its surveillance responsibilities through the Watch and Warning Branch and the Secretary Principal Briefing Branch. The Threat Analysis Division is entrusted with the duty of detecting vulnerable areas in USA’s critical infrastructure framework and its vital resources. It functions through its four main divisions. The Alternative Analysis Division utilizes alternative analysis instruments and techniques to recognize critical assumptions, challenge their results and finally arrive at a conclusion. This Division works in collaboration with the analysts of the I&A. The Collections and Requirements Division has been allotted the duty of identifying fundamental ISR capabilities of the DHS and accordingly constructs the required ISR enterprise architectures. The Plans and the Integration Division is responsible for integrating the plans and programs of the overall intelligence enterprise of the DHS. The Information Sharing and Knowledge Management Division monitors the information technology resources of the DHS and ensures their proper governance.(Studeman, 2007. P.4-15) It is evident from the above discussion that, The United States has to deal with the potential threat of the internal terrorist organizations along with the external dangers of terrorism. In fact, the US intelligence agencies have identified these home-grown branches of the militant groups as an immediate danger to the country considering their easy access to America’s resources and its people. After the September 11, 2001’s terrorist attacks the Federal Government had adopted a two-pronged approach to counter terrorism. On one hand, it proceeded to identify, locate and eliminate the members of the terrorist groups which posed a threat to the country’s national security. On the other hand, the nation concentrated on strengthening its Homeland Security System to detect elements of future threat to the nation and accordingly eradicate them to prevent the recurrence of the nightmares of the earlier terrorist attacks. References Getting Homeland Security Right. (2004). Strategic Security,104(1), 48-60. Goldman, E.O. (2008). New Threats, New Identities and New Ways of War: The Sources of Change in National Security Doctrine. Journal of Strategic Studies,24(2), 43-76. Lijn, J.v.d. (2011). Crystal Balling Future Threats 2020-2030: Security Foresights of “Actors” and “Drivers” in Perspective, Defense and Security Analysis, 27 (2), 149-167. Studeman, M.W. (2007). Strengthening the Shield: U.S Homeland Security Intelligence.International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 20 (2), 195-216. Sauter, M, Carafano, J (2005).Homeland Security: A Complete Guide to Understanding, Preventing and Surviving Terrorism, USA, The Mc-Graw Hill Publications Read More