National Security and Public Safety - Research Paper Example

national security and public safety Introduction As security challenges increase in the 21st century, there is need for countries to adopt effective measures to curb them. For example, experienced and skilled intelligence officers should be employed on the ground to ensure that any information that relates to the security of a country is attained in a timely manner. Intelligence Community (IC) refers to the federation that is made up of 17 US government agencies that work as a team to conduct intelligence activities that aim at conduction national security as well as foreign relations in United States. Having been formed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, IC, which is headed by Director of National Intelligence, is made up of bodies such as Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Treasury, Defense Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation among others. The mission of IC is to collect and send the vital information the US president, military communities, law enforcers and policy makers need to execute their responsibilities (James, 2015). Even though each of the organization operates under its own directive, they are dedicated to ensure that the defense of US and national security are not overlooked. As the result of the emergence of modern technology that has kept on changing, radical groups as well as rogue states are able to execute operations that can have deadly consequences in US and across the globe. In this regard, the parties in the United States Intelligence Community have organized themselves to ensure maximum defense against hostile action focused at the US. The aim of this paper is to explore the ways of how the US Intelligence Community should be organized and managed in the future. Global Coverage Globally, security is a challenge that has negatively impacted on the economic, political, social and cultural development of many countries. As a developed country, US has a great impact of the economic development of many countries in Asia, African and Europe regions among many areas. Additionally, US has interests in foreign countries and the aim of the country is to create strong foreign relations with the developing and developed countries. This is done through the establishment of the embassies in foreign countries. As countries embark on expanding their infrastructure, they have invited US based firms to undertake the expansion resulting to creation of employment for US and foreign citizens (Mark, 2012). This implies that once a foreign country is experiencing security challenges, US is also affected. For example, the 1998 terrorist attacks that occurred in Tanzania and Kenya US embassies did not only result into death of local citizens but also US employees and assets were negatively affected (Eyal, 2012) . This is a clear indication that Intelligence Community should have a global coverage. The part below discusses the various reasons as to why the IC should be concerned about global coverage. Information infrastructure attack With the growing trend of governments as well as organizations aspects of migrating to internet and digital networks, there is increased cyber attacks as well as web page defacement. As more countries migrate to digital operations, computer networks and denial-of-service attack are expected to increase globally (George Bush School of Government and Public Service, 2013). This implies that the likelihood of destructive attacks that are executed through online avenues will increase. While most of the security agencies in various countries prepare to handle physical attacks for example around the US embassies, the attack may occur in the form of a cyber crime that may result to linkage of vital security information as well as deleting of important records (Michael and Kenneth, 1998). For instance, in 2013, a sizeable cyber attack in South Korea resulted into damaging of quite a number of computer workstations. In addition, the attack affected the automated teller machine services and online banking. Another example of an attack that involved denial-of-service occurred in 2013 in US. During the attack, US financial sector was adversely affected resulting to high cost for mitigation. Most of the countries have collaborated with US in fighting terrorism. On their part, terrorist organization use offensive cyber capabilities and cyber space for financial activities, propaganda and recruitment. As US engage on mass transit, water management and gas pipelines locally and globally, the Industrial Control and Supervisory Control Data Acquisition systems are notable targets of attackers. Despite the modern architectural designs that are flexible and resistant to attacks, they remain vulnerable to attacks, which might result to negative implications on human and economic activities (Paul, 2013). In addition, the current integration to information network by industrial components, vehicles, and home appliances in developing countries has made them to be essential in generating information. For instance, the smart objects will start to share information with internet-enabled services. In turn, the internet services will take the role of information technology thus playing a significant part in global economy, thus resulting to more complexity (Dana and William, 2010). As the result of the complex nature of the emerging information technology and internet connection, there is need for more security assurance to avoid attackers who may use them to jeopardize US as well as global security. Terrorism Ranging from homegrown violent extremist to formal groups, terrorist threats have emerged as global challenges that need to be addressed by all countries. With the diversified investment and foreign interests that US has in other countries, it is important for Intelligence Community to cover more countries to ensure terrorists activities are mitigated (Richelson, 2012). In addition to the homegrown violent activities, for example the April 2013 Boston attack, US Homeland is faced with threats from Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Iran, Africa and Hizballah regions. This means that more intelligence report is required from such countries as a way of ensuring that IC provides reliable information to the US president and the necessary action taken to curb the terrorist activities. Weapons of mass destruction One of the major security threats that US and its allies face is acquiring and delivery systems of weapons of mass destruction. While homeland security has adopted various strategies to deal with the security threats from weapons of mass destruction, the challenges have emerged from other countries (Frank et al, 2014). Intelligence Community is thus under obligation to assess for example Iran and North Korea weapons of mass destruction capabilities. Despite its acceding to the Chemical Weapons Convention of 2013, Syria also, pose as a great threat as far as the use of weapons of mass destruction is concerned. Transnational organized crime Global crimes have also emerged as great threats to US national and economic security. Criminals in foreign countries can play a notable role in undermining the rule of law weakening economic stability in such countries and specifically to the areas where US has interest. For example, Mexican drugs have resulted to high level of corruption and violence in the country in addition to being the major source of revenue for Afghanistan and Taliban fighters. New psychoactive substances have also been noted by US Intelligence Community as a major threat for United States as well as over 70 other countries Rory, 2013). Despite the declining market for heroin and cocaine, there is a rapid increase in the manufacturing and use of synthetic drugs. History of Intelligence Community US CI was established in 1981 by the Executive Order 12333. This was a regulation whose major role was increasing the responsibilities and power that was with the intelligence agencies. In addition, the order aims at directing US leaders to have full cooperation with CIA once the agency request for information. The order, which was referred as US Intelligence activities, made an amendment of the Executive Order 13355, whose objective was to strengthen the management of Intelligence Community. As a law that was effective after the consent of President Ronald Reagan, the order embarked on changing the IC in its six primary objectives. First, it streamlined the collection of information required by the president, secretary of state, notional Security Council as well as executive branch officials in their day-to-day responsibilities. Secondly, the order improved the use of intelligence to fight crimes. Thirdly, it improved ways of collecting information and conducting the activities that touch on the US security. Fourthly, it provided special activities. These entailed the activities that relates to US foreign policies in other countries. Fifthly, it changed the administrative activities within US and in foreign countries as a way of ensuring that security matters are covered. Finally, it ensured that the CI emulates the directions of the president as they are issued on a regular basis. As outlined by the intelligence requirements of 1995, PDD-35 covers intelligence from tier 0 to tier 4. While tier 0 defines crisis and warning management, tier 4 involves the matters touching on countries that US is not interested in. Notably, the PDD identifies areas that US IC will not collect against. According to PDD-35, various areas have different priority. For example, Support to Military Operations (SMO) is given the highest priority. The second priority is given to the economic, political and military intelligence for the countries that are hostile to US in order to mitigate conflicts and avoid them before they emanate. The third priority as outlined by PDD-35 is to protect Americans from the emerging threats including terrorists, drug traffickers, weapons of mass destruction, and organized criminals. Given the increasing terrorist activities, crimes and drugs, and counter-proliferation, the Presidential Decision Directive also gives high priority to the Intelligence support activities in order to ensure that IC undertakes it duties in an effective way. One of the notable aspects that had positive impact during the implementation of the IC objectives was the increased priority that the Directive improved the priority that was assigned to intelligence collection as well as analysis capabilities relating to the proliferation threat. Through the establishment of Nonproliferation Center in 1993 by the Director of Central Intelligence, IC was improved by ensuring that there was sustainable coordination among the nonproliferation programs. The establishment of Intelligence Priorities Interagency Working Group by PDD-35 had a significant impact on the United States relationship with other countries. For example, the Group created a base for identifying foreign policies that are important and required by the Intelligence Community. Additionally, interagency working group engaged on coming up with the requirements for collecting, analyzing and ranking the intelligence requirements. Given the importance of Intelligence community in US and global security, the US government has continued to provide sustainable guidelines for the agencies. For instance, during the 1997 Financial Year, intelligence budget request was produced using the President’s priorities that he established under PDD-35. Current Intelligence Community approach As a way of making CI to be under effective and clear management, policy directive for intelligence community leadership was enacted in 2006. The policies that the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the position currently held by James Clapper ensures its adoption aims at ensuring that all the parts of the IC are working together, provide accurate information and provide objective intelligence to the president. Being appointed by the US president, DNI relies on the senior leaders of the ODNI to provide national intelligence to the President and ensure continuous upgrade of the IC as a way of staying ahead of local and global threats. One of the notable approaches that are applied by IC senior leaders is establishing the relationship between planning and execution. Additionally, the senior leaders are responsible for deploying collection techniques and tracking strategies. CI track prioritization During its activities, Intelligence Community emulates various tracking systems. Given the wide geographical area that the agencies serve, the use of geographical information systems (GIS) is one of the tracking methods that are applied. Through this technology, the users are able to manage, analyze and lastly to produce geospatial data that is combined with other forms of intelligence in order to come up with reliable results. Some of the major stakeholders involved in tracking systems of GIS include tracking analysts, ArcGIS Military Analyst, Grid Manager and Military Overlay Editor among others. Additionally, US CI applies the satellite AIS system to monitor and track the vessels that move around the local and foreign seas. While most of the terrorist attacks are expedited through air, maximum caution has been taken to mitigate the movement of terrorist through the oceans. Through the use of modern communication technologies, Intelligence Community is able to get first hand information regarding any possible attack locally and in other countries. \ CI outreach methods One of the strategies that the Intelligence Community applies to deal with local and global threats is through the use of community outreach. Community outreach is a vital tool that is used during law enforcement since it makes the public to bring their concerns to the police. Intelligence Community and FBI realized that the public has important information that can be used to deal with threats such as terrorism. For instance, in 2004, St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) established an outreach program that aimed at addressing the issues faced by Somali American residents. The main objectives of using outreach programs include reduction of gang activities and crimes and identifying the reasons as to why young people join terrorist organizations. Through SPPD, CI is able to make the immigrant have a better understanding of the US criminal justice system in addition to enhancing understanding among the police in regards to the social lives of the local communities. CI analytic methods In its effort to deal with the global threats, CI adopts various analytic methods. First is basic information, which provides important context and factual knowledge of the subject to be covered. Other tools include current reports, evaluative assessments, estimative reports and warning assessments. The agencies analysis on their part applies diversified approaches to come up with the solutions to the security problems. The first approach is the situational logic. This entails establishing different hypothesis on the elements involved in the current situation. The second approach is referred as building a scenario. This involves explaining the origin of the current situation and estimates its implications in the future. Another tool that is used by the analysts is the applying theory. Even though theory as a term is not mostly applied in intelligence, it provides conclusions based on the studies done by the analysts. Assessment of effectiveness/assessment of IC approach On their mission to undertake a terror attack, terrorists need to travel unimpeded through the sea or by any other means. To mitigate such movement, geographical information systems has been effective in dealing with the sea movement once the CI is suspicious of the intention of a certain boat or ship. The approaches applied by the IC have also been effective in certain ways. First, they have ensured that terrorists are denied the resources and support to plan and undertake the attacks. Secondly, they have been used to prepare and protect local and global communities against terrorist attacks. Thirdly, through the US criminal justice system, the Intelligence Community has been able to purse terrorist suspects and bring them to justice (Director of National Intelligence, 2013). Through the use of outreach programs, CI has prevented men and women from joining terrorist movements in Somalia and other countries. Since the enactment of Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in 2004, which resulted to the creation of Director of National Intelligence office, the agencies have resulted to various divisions and directorates. Despite the modern approaches applied by the analysts and the policy makers, there has been wide spread criticism on the way the agencies are managed. Notably, the turf wars that exist between the agencies due to the political access, and size of budgets among other issues have resulted to occurrence of world events without being anticipated by the intelligence services (Luis and Richard, 2005). Recommendations Terror attacks have been one of the major issues that are affecting the social and economic development of developing countries. While US has been able to make advance steps towards protecting its country, Intelligence Community should adopt similar techniques to assist the developing countries to deal with the treat. First, there is need to have a micro sophisticated thinking about the risks. On a humanity ground, it is important to provide refugees with a secured place but at the same time, it is important to establish risks that may arise from holding them. It is vital to note that some of the terror attacks are expedited by the same refugees without the awareness of the security agencies. This implies that once the Intelligence Community goes global, it should ensure that foreign countries are educated on how to analyze the risks that emanate from holding the refugees from war torn areas. Application of effective communication systems is another approach that the Intelligence Community should adopt. With the growing terror attacks, members of the public should be provided with an opportunity to communicate the risks that they notice while leaving with their neighbors. This implies that the Intelligence Community while working in developing countries should adopt means of communication which are secretive in nature to motivate the public to give vital information touching on any possible threat. The establishment of community policing is another outreach way that can be used to retrieve significant amount of information that relates to security matters (Report of the National Commission, 2013). There is need to create a strong positive relationship between the public and the security personnel. Based on the need for more investigation and tracking, the agencies should reallocate some resources to allow the investigators undertake their duties effectively. Additionally, more resources should be allocated to cater for the modern methods of communication (Mark, 2009). It is vital to note that while the military and other security officers have modernized weapons, the terror and drugs groups have also invested in modern weapons and communication systems. This implies that the agencies should also improve their methods of combating the terrorists by use of advanced weapons which outdo those of the attackers. As a way of making the agencies work together and reduce the redundancy being experienced, there is need to make some changes in the management. The position of the Director of Intelligence should remain but the agencies can be modified to come up with two divisions. These include foreign and domestic intelligence divisions. The foreign intelligence division main roles will to control the overseas military intelligence, control embassies, replacing DIA and CIA, gathering information relating to foreign targets, conducting analysis, and making daily reports to the director of intelligence (Richard , 2009). On the other hand, domestic intelligence division roles will include protection of president as well as foreign dignitaries, combating organized crimes, responding to domestic acts of terrorists, dealing with border security, replacement of FBI, DHS and NBS, and combating illegal drug trade among other duties. Another modification can involve establishment of Shared Intelligence Resource Modules. The first module will be under the Global Surveillance Officer, whose main duties would be to control satellite, drones, long distance monitoring systems, and other airborne services (Priest, 2011). Through the request of DID and FID, this office would make an analysis of the current situation and then make a yearly report to the Electronic Development officer. The second module would then be introduction of Electronic Security Office. The role of this office would entail maintaining maximum security for the US electronic systems, which includes intelligence networks and electric grid, military networks and cyber espionage among others. Conclusion For the last two decades, security has been a major concern globally. Political, social and economic development of many countries has been affected by the acts of terrorism and drug trafficking. Through the establishment of Community Intelligence, the US government has adopted various strategic methods to maintain security locally and globally. Being headed by James Clapper, CI is made up of 17 divisions. Since US has expansive interests globally, it is essential for CI to take a global approach. This implies that more resources and workforce will be required to deal with the threats that are not only experienced in developed states but also in developing countries (National Intelligence Council, 2012). As discussed in the paper, internet has been a key issue in the globalization process. This implies that CI should take all the necessary measures to deal with the information infrastructure attacks. Other reasons as to why CI should go global include terrorism, use of weapons of mass destruction especially in the Middle East, and transnational organized crime among others. Through the application of PDD-35, CI has identified areas that need priority and through the use of modern tracking approaches, advanced analytic methods and outreach programs, the agencies have dealt with threats in an effective way. However, there is need to modify the manner in which the agencies are managed. It is imperative for the senate to come with laws that will modify the CI to make it more effective and enter other countries where US is interested in. References Dana, P and William, A. (2010). A hidden world, growing beyond control. The Washington Post. Director of National Intelligence, U.S. National Intelligence: An Overview 2013. Eyal, P. (2012). Intelligence Assessment Regarding Social Development: The Israeli Experience. International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence. 26:1, 84-114. Frank, B. et al. (2014). Dealing with femtorisks in International Relations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (December 9, 2014) Vol 111, No. 49 17356-17362 George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, Emerging Trends with a Potential for Significant Impact on the U.S. Intelligence Community. November 2013 James, C, Statement for the Record, Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Senate Armed Services Committee. 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