Homeland Security Issues and Concerns - Research Paper Example

Homeland Security Issues and Concerns Introduction Homeland security is known to be a umbrella term for Americans that is associated with all the efforts that is undertaken by this nation so as to prevent any form of terrorist attacks on United States. Homeland security takes care of the factors to reduce the vulnerability of terrorism in US and minimizes the overall damages that are caused due to such terrorist attacks on the nation. The term was mainly formulated on the incident of many US government agencies reorganization in the year 2003 after the well known attack of September 11. The name United States Department of Homeland Security indicated the course of actions that was conducted by this department. The protection of US territory is done by HD or rather known as Homeland Defense to take care of domestic population, sovereignty and the critical infrastructure against all the external aggression and threats. The approach of Homeland Security in the United States includes all of the major responsibilities of government entities and agencies. The Homeland Security and Defense of the federal government of United States comprises of a total of 187 departments and agencies. The nations effort towards the civilians of the country can be more precisely be defined as Homeland Security. The scope of Homeland Security covers a wide range of elements such as emergency preparedness that includes emergency management, police, fire prevention and medical treatment, border security critical infrastructure, biodefense, international intelligence, transportation security, proper detection of radiological materials, and research on technologies for next generation security. Identification of issues and concerns of homeland security As the modern world is changing security aspects are also getting more and more complex day by day. Country like USA always faces different threats. There are many issues and concerns are there for USA in terms of their homeland security. It is very important for USA to identify all those issues and concerns in a detail manner. Different issues and concerns will be discussed. The latest intelligence forecast has identified main five issues or concerns for home land security. Biological Weapon is a very serious issue for home land security. Different intelligence agencies are forecasting that one of the main concerns for home land security is usage of biological weapons by terrorists group. Intelligence depar5tment like FBI are very much concern with the newly developed weapon. The weapon is having capacity of mass destructions. These kinds of weapon are having deadly viruses inside them. This kind of weapon are very silent in nature do not create any explosion. It is a serious concern for home land security because it is very difficult for security department to locate the attack from this weapon. There is no pro active measure for this kind of weapon. It is a great concern for home land security because solution of this issue is still not clear. Researchers and scientist of the country are working very hard but the pace of the research to come up with any solution is very slow (William and Keith, 2005). Nuclear weapons remain one of the most serious issues for USA. In the modern world most of the countries are trying to be a nuclear power. Recently US intelligence agencies have come up with astonishing findings. They have found that raw materials of Nuclear weapon are being traded in black markets. It has high probability to go into the wrong hands like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. The most serious concern for home land security is there is no clear way of stopping of those raw materials in black markets. Easy availability of raw material are very dangerous as group like al-Qaida and Laskare –taiba are waiting to latch on any opportunity. Cyber attack is also very modern but serious issue for USA Homeland security. These attacks are made with the help of network. It is often being noticed that different websites of the country are being hacked by unknown identity. These kinds of attack are very systematic and sophisticated in nature. Cyber attacks may disclose different secret documents regarding to the Home land security. It can dismantle different important security related technological system of the country. It can affect the economy of the country. Technology is a very important part of USA. Cyber attack can cause destruction to different aspects of USA. It can destroy strategic communication infrastructure, can cause harm to military installations and can damage public safety. Concern for the White house is modern technology is changing within few seconds. It is very challenging for Homeland security department to keep track with these kinds of changing technologies (David, 2002). Changing climate is also a very serious issue for home land security. According to the defense secretary of the country climate change is have its own significant impacts on homeland security. Due changes in the climate sea level are rising regularly. Global warming is resulting in severe drought in the country. Cold winter is disrupting human lives and creating problems for common Americans. Changing climate can be a reason for big climatic disaster. Then Government often has to come up with relief assistance for humanitarian purposes. The concern is very obvious for homeland security department. As human being in the world are having very less capacity to fight against whimsical nature of climate. Transnational crime is also a very serious issue for Homeland security department. It is often being noticed that non state criminals and drugs mafias are doing crimes in the country. They often try to destabilize the social fabric of the country by supplying deadly drugs to youth of the country. It is often being noticed that unidentified gunman is creating mayhem in any universities or in schools. Sometimes criminals from neighboring countries like Mexico and Canada trespasses into the country and commits crime and then returns to their own country. It is a very serious concern for homeland security department because it is very difficult or almost impossible to identify mysterious gunmen in a crowded school or in university. Often drug mafias are having unholy nexus with security departments. It is making the scenario more complex (Marvin and Kenneth, 2013). Analysis of solutions for issues and concerns of homeland security Homeland Security as an organization which has the major responsibility of safeguarding the nation from terrorist attacks and to take care of the well being of nation it faces a lot of challenges. It has to deal with some of the most vexing problems that are faced by the nation in the form of enforcing laws for immigration, securing borders, safeguarding cyberspace, preparing for various forms of disasters and adopting measures so as to prevent terrorism in the country. The major challenges that the homeland security faces is in the form of terrorist attacks there are several different measures that has been adopted such as in 2012 it has been mandate that any form of container that is to come to the United States has to be checked at its overseas port. This goal that needs to be achieved by the nation is not a very easy task as some of the countries has accepted this norm that has been enforced by Homeland Security but there are some other countries that are not of the same mind. The department also takes measures so as to secure any form of radioactive material in the nation majorly those that are involved in industrial and medical facilities. Theft is the major challenge that is faced in this field and in order to mitigate such attacks there is stockpiling that is done by the department. The major goal behind this solution is to make such treatment readily accessible to the public. There is also a threat of terrorism on the cyberspace and in order to handle such a challenge the department has taken measures to design national cyber strategy (Flammini, Setola and Franceschetti, 2013).There are a lot of techniques that the government has employed so as to handle such cyberspace attacks but the major challenge still exist that such strategy can be easily imitated by rival nations for their advantage. The other issue of nuclear explosions has been resolved to a great extent by the program of Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that enabled creating a more of global network robust in nature that can monitor any form of underground detonations of nuclear weapons. The officials of the department stated that building a network of seismic sensors is very much beneficial for detection of 90% of any attempt that is clandestine so as test a nuclear weapon that has the overall weight of 1 kiloton. Cyber security over the years has been a very serious matter of concern for the Homeland Security (Morag, 2011).The department has come forward with the best of infrastructure and the best of facilities so that it can prevent the cyberspace from attacks. The officials of the department had even recruited the best of professionals who can take care of network security and propose the best of strategies to avoid such challenges. However as the technology is being more advanced it is becoming even more of difficult to track such cyber criminals. The department is trying its best to recruit the experts on the board and motivate young professionals towards such course so that more of research can be done to prevent the system from such sophisticated criminals. The issue of climate change is also one of the most prevalent factors that are a big challenge for the department. However the department is taking active measures to reduce the overall carbon emissions by employing the best of technologies so as to facilitate more of a green environment. In order to utilize the maximum of renewable energy resources the department enters into partnership with Navy officials who were well known for bio-fuel champions. The country even indulges into buying maximum of renewable resources from partner countries. The best way to absorb the transnational crime that has already been incorporated by Homeland Security is in the form of strict surveillance and intelligence platforms that has made them able to track the maximum of drug dealers in the nation. However there is a lack of secure communication network that is not present with the United States (Purpura, 2011). There is a need to set personnel in the most remote locations and to have more of distributed form of network. The technology behind the intelligence system of Homeland Security of the nation is very strong and that has facilitated detection of various drug related scandals. There are certain technologies that are used to meet such challenges such as intelligence gathering through word of mouth, maritime radar and even involving into direct cooperation with many kinds of regional allies. The major operations of the Homeland Security for handling this particular challenge are done through spying. There are various issues that are been faced by the department and it adopts the best of technologies to address such issue so as to safeguard the nation from all form of attacks. Pros and cons of the solutions There are various forms of challenges that are faced by Homeland Security and the solutions that are proposed so as to meet the issues have some pros as well as cons. Though all the solutions are well formulated by the department but there still exist some loopholes in such solutions. The major pros of the anti-terrorist work that is incorporated by the department is the involvement of wide range of intelligence agencies that provides more effective solutions and such teams together make the fight against terrorist attacks on the nations more effective. The agencies that work together with Homeland Security has extended help in many areas to provide readiness towards disaster. The cons of such solution is that the positive impact of such strategies are still in the initial stages and there is a huge amount that is invested by the department and other agencies so as to make such strategies work effectively for the nation. The other advantages of such solutions is that it has well organized departments that takes care of wide range of factors such as nuclear detection, border protection and customs, health affairs, transportation security, and even immigration (Mena, 2004). However the loopholes still remains in certain areas of security that is majorly observed in cyber space. The attacks that are faced by cyberspace are very difficult to manage by the department irrespective of the advanced technology that is used by the department so as to reduce the level of attacks through cyber criminals. As new solutions are incorporated by the experts of the departments the technology in the external environment advances making the cyber criminals more sophisticated for their attacks. The major loopholes lies in the areas that the department is investing billions of dollars in the approach of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks but very few of the solutions that has been adopted has proved to be fruitful as there are no such appropriate measures that can detect the future moves of terrorist towards the nation (Grossi, 2008). All the solutions that are undertake by the department is for the security of the nation that forms the biggest advantage of the solutions of Homeland Security whereas the major disadvantage that the department faces is in form of intrusions and inconvenience in relation to privacy. The methods that are adopted by the department in order to safeguard the population result into more of inconvenience for the public may that be in terms of strict regulations or different form of laws on immigration or on transportation. The transnational crimes that take place are often controlled by the department by setting up of spying agencies that gathers information regarding various drug dealers in the nation and adopts the best possible measures so as to eliminate such drug scandals from the root level which are the major pros of the solutions. On the other hand the cons of such solution to stop such crimes are millions of rupees that are invested to eliminate such scandals from the nation. Conclusion Homeland Security is an initiative of United States that has been taken so as to protect the border and population from any form of disasters or attacks. The department takes every possible measure so as to provide a safe environment to all citizens of the nation. The task of Homeland Security is not only bounded to protecting the nation from any form of terrorist attacks but also it extends help to develop critical infrastructure, performs research for future technology and even provides immediate medical and other preventive measures in the time of disaster. The department works for the well-being of the country and also for all the individuals who are a part of that country. However there are certain challenges that are faced by this organizations that needs to be resolved so that their actions plans proves to be more productive. Such challenges are in the form of climate change, transnational crimes, cyberspace threat, increased number of terrorist attacks, etc. These challenges has been met by the department to a great extent through the effective solutions that are designed by them but some of the challenges are not properly addressed and needs to be researched upon so as to develop the best possible solution for such issues. References David, M. W. (2002). Homeland security critical design and implementation issues. New York: DIANE Publishing. Flammini, F., Setola, R., and Franceschetti, G. (2013). Effective Surveillance for Homeland Security: Balancing Technology and Social Issues. USA: CRC Press Grossi, M. (2008). Homeland Security Technology Challenges: From Sensing and Encrypting to Mining and Modeling. USA: Artech House Marvin, G. K. and Kenneth, A. R. (2013). Calculated Risks: Highly Radioactive Waste and Homeland Security (Google eBook). New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Mena, J. (2004). Homeland Security Techniques and Technologies. USA: Charles River Media Morag, N. (2011). Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Purpura, P. (2011). Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction with Applications. USA: Butterworth-Heinemann William, M. T. and Keith, B. (2005). Emerging Issues in Homeland Security. New York: Nova Publishers. Read More