When I hear the term Homeland Security, I think of a government agency whose purpose is to
ensure national security. For me, Homeland Security means that there is a government office or
department with access to information that the public may not yet know about the dangers that
threaten society, and that, therefore, its mission is to prevent these internal threats from
materializing.The Department of Homeland Security emerged as a result of the terrorist attack
on September 11, 2001. On September 11, terrorists attacked the United States. They captured
four American planes and used them as weapons, attacking the World Trade Center in New
York City and killing nearly 3,000 people (Preparing For The Oath: U.S. History And Civics For
Citizenship, n.d.). The purpose of the Department of Homeland Security was to prevent a similar
attack from resurfacing in our country. On the Homeland Security website, we read about the
department's mission which, in short, is to protect the nation from the many threats it faces
(DHS | Homeland Security, 2012). These threats include, but are not limited to, military
movements, revolution, violent demonstrations, riots, and domestic terrorism (Nemeth, 2017).
Threats to the homeland also include threats against national leaders, the nation's maritime and
border zone, and even natural disasters. Currently there are 6 general missions that make up
the strategic plan of the Department of Homeland Security to protect our nation from external
and internal threats. These missions include the control of terrorism and threats to national
security; secure the border of the United States; protect cyberspace and critical infrastructure;
preserve and maintain the economic prosperity and security of the nation; strengthen
preparedness and resilience; and finally, strengthen the workforce and the DHS department
(About DHS | Homeland Security, 2012).
The Department of Homeland Security is composed of more than 240,000 employees in areas
including, but not limited to, aviation, border security, cybersecurity analyst, and emergency
response, to name a few. In addition to having expert staff, the department has what they call a
strategic plan that articulates the mission and objectives of the department, as well as the
strategies used to achieve these objectives. This strategic plan also includes long-term
performance measures that are used to evaluate the progress of the strategy in use. In terms of
effectiveness, one can argue that the Department of Homeland Security, while not perfect, has
been effective in the sense that it has prevented another attack of the magnitude of the one that
occurred on September 11, 2001, from happening again. In addition, it has also prevented
attacks of smaller magnitude from occurring. By implementing various strategies, such as
passenger control, terrorist travel prevention, and improved cargo and baggage control review,
the Department of Homeland Security prevents terrorist attacks from occurring in the national
territory (Preventing Terrorism Results | Homeland Security, 2012).
One of the things that interests me most about the Department of Homeland Security is the
specific methods they use to obtain information that would lead them to arrest a terrorist and / or
prevent an attack from occurring. I am also interested in knowing some of the strategies and / or
tools they use to identify terrorists and / or threats to the peace. Furthermore, I am very
interested in learning more about their relatively new agency designed to combat cyber threats,
primarily because cyber warfare is now the new battlefield according to experts in the field of
Homeland Security. Since the Internet is expansive in nature, it has opened up a whole new
domain for attack and war. For this reason, the Department of Homeland Security has created a
new agency to combat cyber threats that could potentially threaten national security (O’Neill
Sciarrone, n.d.). This is an area of interest to me, as cybercrime represents one more threat to
our national security and our future.
One of the criticisms of the Department of Homeland Security is that it tries to do too much and
ends up doing too little (Edwards, 2014). For this reason, some even call for the closure of said
agency. The Department of Homeland Security was created on the promise of improving
efficiency without a growing government, but the promise of creating a lean and efficient DHS
did not materialize (Edwards, 2014). The Department's spending has increased dramatically
from 2004 to 2014, as has the size of its workforce. Therefore, if I could fix something entirely
within the Department of Homeland Security, I would limit spending and / or its workforce, and
instead consider different ideas about cost-effective ways to protect the American public without
incurring a lot of expense, especially since we are now at $ 28.8 trillion in national debt.
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