What does homeland security mean?
What is the mission of homeland security?
How effective and efficient is homeland security?
What interests you the most about homeland security (what part of it) and why?
If you could fix any 1 thing completely within homeland security, what would it be and why
Finally, apply at least 1 biblical passage to the concept or practice of homeland security. Explain why you
picked the passage and what it means to you.
Nemeth, C.P. P. (2016). Homeland Security (3rd Edition). Taylor &
Francis. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781498749121
Zaffar, E. (2019). Understanding Homeland Security: Foundations of Security Policy (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.4324/9780323296243
Most tend to think of Homeland Security as a new catch phrase that was created after 9/11. However,
the ideas and actions of countries have shown that homeland security has been evolving for many years
before. “Terror and the terrorist are not new phenomena—they are a construction of the ages, seen
throughout history in various guises” (Nemeth, 2016, P. 1). The meaning of Homeland Security is in its
name. Homeland is defined as areas for a particular national or cultural origin and security is defined as
protecting. Countries have been fighting for years to protect their culture, but it wasn’t until 2002 that
the coined phrase was established into a United States Federal Agency with the specific goal of
protecting America.
Homeland Security for America is categorized into broad areas including preventing terrorism,
securing/managing borders, and enforcing immigration laws. “The general understanding enshrined by
bodies like the 9/11 Commission was that the U.S. was simply unprepared for the terrorist threat that
arrived on September 11. Remedying this structural problem required a massive reorientation of the U.S.
security and intelligence apparatus….resulting structure of the newly formed Department of Homeland
Security” (Zaffar, 2019, P. 45). Anyone that believes that Homeland Security will be able to safeguard the
American people from any attack, is incorrect. The effectiveness and efficiency of Homeland Security is
that it reduces that risk. If there were no investigations or actions being completed then the threat and
terroristic actions would be in greater numbers here. Homeland security will not end terrorism in the
United States, but it does reduce or discourage it. The federal agency has been awarded several times for
being an efficient agency utilizing the best cost effective measures to produce the most tangible results.
This is partly based on the newness of the agency compared to other agencies that have been operating
for many years and needing to tweak things to adjust to current times. Dividing the actions into subparts
allows for people to specialize in areas rather than trying to be knowledgeable on so many aspects.
Homeland Security takes on many roles and responsibilities including borders, airports, water ports,
natural disaster response, and the ever-evolving cybersecurity. The part that interests me the most is the
one I have the least knowledge of, cybersecurity. I know there are cyber-attacks being thwarted
constantly that citizens never know about. I would want to look into how often they are thwarted and
what the ultimate goal of those attacks were for. Are they for the attacker to gain money or simply for
the malicious act against America? Fully understanding the goals of the cyber-attacks would assist
American citizens with a better understanding of how important Homeland Security is now that most e-
commerce and money is tied up in internet usage.
Immigration laws are constantly being used as a political agenda. The thing I would choose to change
would be to enforce the immigration laws and create a way for this to come out of political agenda. I
understand the far reaching idea of this, but laws were created for a reason to safeguard American
Citizens. No person had issues when it was as close to 9/11 as it was. Now that it is considered in the
past or in our history as if it were so long ago, political agendas forget that loosening immigration laws
will result in easier ways for future terroristic acts. This is not to say that all immigrants should be treated
as terrorists, but there are policies and procedures that should be followed in order to ensure that all are
coming for the correct reason and not a malicious intent.
Homeland Security in the United States is about protecting Americans from harm both domestic and
abroad. This protection needs to be there for there are many that would do harm and often harm is
avoided by the investigations to prevent it.
“Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily,
according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness” 1 Peter 5:2
I hope that there will always be those willing to serve out of eagerness to protect Americans from harm
as many do it through service in military, service in law enforcement, and service through many other
means with most of it being because they have the drive to do so and not because of some other
motive. I have been in law enforcement for 22 years and understand that duty to protect. This passage
speaks to me as many times Homeland Security must protect the flock by confronting wolves.
Nemeth, C.P. P. (2016). Homeland Security (3rd Edition). Taylor &
Francis. https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781498749121
Zaffar, E. (2019). Understanding Homeland Security: Foundations of Security Policy (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.4324/9780323296243
,
Thank you for your discussion post for the Homeland Security. As I thought through wording for
Homeland Security, most rely on using the term in relations to the federal agency. I liked the use of
terming it as a science that encompasses the subjects and provides the holistic effort. It is too easy just
to refer to the agency and think that it encompasses everything when as a science it takes all the federal
agencies, local governments, and branches of military to coordinate efforts in order to keep a country
safe. The Constitutional balance between providing security and respecting citizen rights is always going
to be a struggle because of the differences in opinions of our citizens. Even the ones trying to be
protected. “Safety with Freedom” phrases it correctly. “In the ACLU's post-9-11 Safe and Free campaign,
the ACLU and its ideologically diverse partners have analyzed each touted security measure to ensure
that it really does maximize security, with the minimal possible cost to liberty” (Strossen, 2005).
I agree that the sharing of information between agencies can always be improved. The sharing of
information increases the situational awareness for our law enforcement officers. There are so many
instances that general public will never know of thwarted attempts at terroristic means. Cyberspace
attacks are something that I have interest in learning more about as it is a growing field with technology
advancing constantly. “It follows that cyber situational awareness includes awareness of, e.g., any kind of
suspicious/interesting activity taking place in cyberspace, where cyberspace includes any kind of
computer network-related activity” (Franke, 2014, P. 20).
Strossen, N. (2005). Safety and freedom: common concerns for conservatives, libertarians, and civil
libertarians. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 29(1), 73+. Retrieved from https://bi-gale-
com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/global/article/GALE%7CA142057899?u=vic_liberty&sid=summon
Franke, Ulrik, Brynielsson, Joel. (2014) Cyber situational awareness – A systematic review of the
literature, Computers & Security, Volume 46, Pages 18-31. ISSN 0167-4048.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2014.06.008
,
Thank you for your discussion post to the Homeland Security thread. I agree with you that failing to
secure borders creates opportunities for an influx of criminal activity. Not just drugs, but it creates an
avenue for so many more criminal acts that affect American life. Law enforcement can often trace some
crimes and criminals to an eventual border crossing or illegal immigration status. I think you could
expand upon Homeland Security in general and more than just borders. Homeland Security for America
is categorized into broad areas including preventing terrorism, securing/managing borders, and
enforcing immigration laws. “The general understanding enshrined by bodies like the 9/11 Commission
was that the U.S. was simply unprepared for the terrorist threat that arrived on September 11.
Remedying this structural problem required a massive reorientation of the U.S. security and intelligence
apparatus….resulting structure of the newly formed Department of Homeland Security” (Zaffar, 2019, P.
45). I believe you could also expand more on the effectiveness. Homeland Security as an agency is
constantly evolving with the modern society we have. This includes cyberspace attacks as well that can
adversely affect our infrastructure. Cyberspace attacks are something that I have interest in learning
more about as it is a growing field with technology advancing constantly. “It follows that cyber
situational awareness includes awareness of, e.g., any kind of suspicious/interesting activity taking place
in cyberspace, where cyberspace includes any kind of computer network-related activity” (Franke, 2014,
P. 20).
Zaffar, E. (2019). Understanding Homeland Security: Foundations of Security Policy (1st ed.). Routledge.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.4324/9780323296243
Franke, Ulrik, Brynielsson, Joel. (2014) Cyber situational awareness – A systematic review of the
literature, Computers & Security, Volume 46, Pages 18-31. ISSN 0167-4048.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2014.06.008
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