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Current Issues and the Best Practices
Liberty University
HLSC 530
Joshua Adams
September 13th, 2025
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Abstract
I will discuss the current threat to our homeland and how to mitigate the threat. Homeland
security is our priority since it protects our country from various threats of international,
domestic and homegrown terrorism and cyber-attacks as well as natural and manmade
disasters and. It ensures the safety and security of our country, citizens, critical infrastructures
and economy. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Department of homeland security was
created and several agencies fall under
DHS. One of the most crucial agencies which falls under DHS is the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA is crucial because it provides coordinated national
response to the disasters to help local and state administrations. FEMA coordinates with the
local agencies in resources allocation, relief efforts, housing and help in long term recovery
efforts especially for the areas which are unable to handle the disaster on their own. FEMA is an
all hazard plan which helps in homeland security. FEMA’s role is very crucial in anti-terrorism
efforts by providing technical support, threat assessment, scenario based special training and
equipment to be used in response to weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological,
radiological and chemical threats. When we connect disasters, hazards and terrorism all these
are connected and need the same coordinated response. All four phases of emergency
management are crucial to protect lives and property during a terrorist attack or a mass
casualty incident.
The most pressing issue regarding homeland security is terrorism, international and domestic
terrorism. Domestic and foreign terrorist organizations pose the biggest threat to the homeland
now. Foreign terrorist organizations like Al- Qaeda and ISIS propaganda to attack the west,
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especially the United States of America, are always there and will stay the threat to our nation’s
security. According to the Department of homeland security the biggest threat to our homeland
is domestic terrorism and in domestic terrorism and in domestic terrorism our biggest threats
are “Racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists” (REMVE) and “Antigovernment anti
authority violent extremists" AGAVE. Domestic terrorism is mostly based on personal
grievances, radicalization, political motivations and bias related. According to our government,
the white suparis ideology is the top domestic terrorism threat to our homeland. “Domestic
violent extremists—specifically those who identify with white supremacist and anti-government
militia ideology—pose the “most persistent and lethal threat” to the United States” (Doxsee &
Harrington, 2021). Between 2013 and 2021 domestic terrorism cases increased by 357% which
makes domestic terrorism the biggest threat to our homeland.
Domestic terrorism is defined by statute as any act dangerous to human life that violates U.S.
criminal laws and appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence
the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a government
by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping. The act in question must occur primarily
within the jurisdiction of the United States. We believe domestic terrorists pose a present and
persistent threat of violence and economic harm to the United States; in fact, there have been
more arrests and deaths caused by domestic terrorists than international terrorists in recent
years. We are most concerned about lone offenders, primarily using firearms, as these lone
offenders represent the dominant trend for lethal domestic terrorists. Frequently, these
individuals act without a clear group affiliation or guidance, making them challenging to identify,
investigate, and disrupt (M. McGarrity, 2019). Deuteronomy 28:1:68 “And if you faithfully obey
the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you
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today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these
blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of
your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds
and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further
ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious,
social, racial, or environmental nature” (FBI, 2025).
Terrorism is a global issue and it brings devastation and destruction to the city, state, country
and even to the globe. It brings many worries and concerns regarding what can possibly
happen. Terrorism generates fear and violence amongst the larger population. The biggest
concerns of terrorism are the harms and fear created to the targets including population and
critical infrastructures. Thereby eroding social order and challenging state authority. Act of
Terrorism inspire similar acts of violence and spread political, religious and social ideologies of
hate.
Our overreaching counterterrorism policy should consist of more planning, goals and strategy
for combating terrorism. Counter terrorism is not only departments of homeland security, law
enforcement, military and first responder’s responsibility, it's the responsibility of every citizen
to prevent mass violence and terrorism. According to the Department of Homeland security our
biggest threat to our homeland is domestic terrorism which includes Antigovernment Anti
authority violent extremists (AGAVE) and racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists
(REMVE). “To achieve our long-term objective we must go beyond narrow counterterrorism
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policies to embed counterterrorism in an overarching national security strategy designed to
restore American leadership and respect in the world”(Benjamin, 2008).
Solution to Domestic terrorism:
To counter terrorism is not only law enforcement responsibility. It's the responsibility of the
whole society, the community and the community members. To counter any kind of terrorism
the collaboration between all the law enforcement agencies, intelligence communities, and
public and private sector partners plays a major role. To empower and educate community
members, security personnel about violence and threat to violence and terrorism and how to
help law enforcement to prevent mass violence and terrorism plays a major role to counter
terrorism. Spreading awareness and protecting the vulnerable structures including critical
infrastructures and key resources, schools and houses of worship. We can protect our facilities
by getting vulnerability assessments and hardening the target. I work in the fusion center and
my team focuses on educating our public and private sector partners how to prevent mass
violence and terrorism through education, awareness and engagement. We promote
Department of Homeland Security “See Something Say Something” messaging and teach how
to recognize mobilization indicators and suspicious activities which can lead to mass violence
and terrorism. We teach them how to keep eyes and ears open and how to be an up stander
instead of a bystander. We teach them how to recognize when someone is on a pathway to
mass violence and terrorism during behavior changing from motivation to preparation before
the mobilization stage to stop the threat before they get to the final stage of carrying out an
attack. We train and educate our critical infrastructure and key resources partners on
hardening their targets and resorting to suspicious activities to our fusion center. We keep a
close eye on national and international events which might have local impact and plan ahead of
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time and engage with the affected communities. Information gathering and sharing between
federal, state, local and territorial agencies plays another key role in protecting the homeland
from terrorism. Nationwide network of fusion centers is a very impactful resource to gather and
share information regarding mass violence and terrorism. As a law enforcement officer and
working with the fusion center I work closely with the Department of Homeland security and
other law enforcement agencies to protect our homeland from terrorism. It's my most favorite
subject and very close to my heart since I have seen and lived through terrorism while living in
Pakistan after September 11, 2001. Learning process never stops so I have learned a lot from
this course and it will help me to advance my career in protecting our homeland from any kind
of terrorism. Homeland security was and will always stay my priority. I learned about border
security which is not my expertise and its importance and a lot about illegal immigrants and
what they bring into our homeland and how it's a threat to our homeland security.
The most important information and knowledge I gained from this course was about National
Response Framework (NRF), National Incident management system (NIMS) and the Incident
Command system and disaster response. I don’t work in an emergency management capacity so
I don't get to learn a lot about these systems, frameworks and the responses. I am happy to say
that now I know about the disaster mitigation, recovery and response system and how it works.
I have a better understanding about the disaster management systems and how to protect our
commutes before and after the disasters and how to minimize the loss of lives, and property
damage during and after natural and manmade disasters. “Disaster management plays an
integral role in keeping communities safe. It involves coordinating the resources (pollution
control systems) and responsibilities (best practice policies) to prevent, prepare for, respond to,
and recover from emergencies”(Benefits of Earning a Disaster Management Degree, 2022) .
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Mitigation:
There are several factors which play a role in mitigating terrorism. As a law enforcement agency,
our agency makes sure the community is empowered in counter terrorism. Our fusion center
has an outreach component which works tirelessly in educating, empowering and spreading
awareness about how to prevent mass violence and terrorism. They promote the department of
homeland security See Something Say Something message and National Suspicious activity
reporting. They build relationships and trust between the community and the law enforcement
and work together in preventing mass violence and terrorism. They teach awareness classes to
all public/private sector partners including faith based, schools, health sector, hospitality sector,
communication sector and all the critical in fractures. We have twenty six partner agencies in
our fusion center and they all work together in gathering and sharing information and
intelligence. We work with our Cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency and DHS
partners to get the vulnerability assessments done for our critical infrastructures as well as
private businesses and facilities which all play a mitigation role in counter terrorism.
Preparedness:
Preparedness against terrorism is to take counter terrorism measures to reduce the risk of
terrorism and mass violence. Preparedness against terrorism is a proactive approach to reduce
the impact of terrorism by proactively gathering information and intelligence and implementing
security measures. Preparedness goals can be achieved by private and public sector partner’s
trust and collaboration.
Response: In the response phase immediate actions are taken to save the lives and reduce the
damage and suffering after a disaster. In the planning phase of response the most important
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factor is evacuations, providing temporary shelters, setting up an emergency operation center
and how to set up search and rescue teams and provide medical aid to the victims,
communicate with the public and start communicating with other agencies as well as public
private sector partners. Response phase is time sensitive which demands quick decision making
strategies. All the stakeholders must be aware of all the technology they can utilize for real time
monitoring so response can be quick and swift. “The response phase occurs in the immediate
aftermath of a disaster. During the response phase, business and other operations do not
function normally. Personal safety and wellbeing in an emergency and the duration of the
response phase depend on the level of preparedness” (FEMA, 2022).
In case of a terrorist attack there must be a response protocol in place for how to connect with
different resources like staff, first responders, different organizations and citizens. It's the
responsibility of emergency management to have signed contracts with third party contractors
like transporters in case of evacuations and delivering the resources to the victims. Under the
emergency management team there must be a uniformed incident response team which makes
sure everyone knows their responsibilities based on their expertise. During terrorist attacks and
mass casualty events a designated area for triage and coordination with volunteers is a key to a
timely response. There must be enough food and water for the volunteers and staff members
for at least 72 hours. “Response activities occur during and in the immediate aftermath of a
terrorist attack or mass violence incident. Response is putting your preparedness plans into
action. For example, triage and seeking medical transporting all the victims are both response
activities. Response focuses on saving lives and preventing further damage to property.
Response activities may include immediate actions like search and rescue, medical care,
firefighting, and sheltering” (Week THREE// May 16–22, 2022, 2022).
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Recovery: After the response phase next phase is recovery to bring the community and citizens
life back to normal and functional after a terrorism related incident. It includes providing long
term mental health and trauma support and strengthening community resilience. “Recovery
consists of those activities that continue beyond the terrorism period to restore critical
community functions and begin to manage stabilization efforts. The recovery phase begins
immediately after the threat to human life has subsided. The goal of the recovery phase is to
bring the affected area back to some degree of normalcy” (The Five Phases of Emergency
Management | Bexar County, TX - Official Website, 2018)
The terrorism recovery process focuses on emergency response, support for the victims and
legal and mental health support. To bring the community impacted by the violence and
terrorism it's important to start community based programs like trauma informed care,
community engagement programs and promoting reconciliation. With the help of faith based
partners since faith brings hope and peace in our lives.
The Worldview:
There are many verses in the bible about disasters and how to respond and how to help each
other in the testing times. “Paul draws attention to this in 1 Corinthians 12:25-26: “The
members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the
members suffer with it.” (The Meaning of Galatians 6:2: How to “Bear One Another’s Burdens,”
2024). It means we all should be empathetic towards our loved ones and people we know and
when they suffer we should be there to help. Disasters provide opportunities for spiritual
growth and community building. During the hard times Christians should provide prayers,
comfort, support and love to the people affected by these disasters. “Be merciful to me, O God,
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be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take
refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1-2” (Lateef, 2018).
References:
FEMA. (2022). Emergency management in the united states. In FEMA.
https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/is111_unit%204.pdf
Week THREE// May 16–22, 2022. (2022, February 16). ICC.
https://www.iccsafe.org/advocacy/building-safety-month/2022-week-three-
disaster mitigation/
The Five Phases of Emergency Management | Bexar County, TX - Official Website. (2018).
Bexar.org. https://www.bexar.org/694/Five-Phases
U.S. Department of the Interior. (2019, September 4). Natural disaster response and
recovery. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.doi.gov/recovery
The Meaning of Galatians 6:2: How to “Bear One Another’s Burdens.” (2024). Life, Hope
& Truth. https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/blog/the-meaning-of-galatians-6-2-how-
can we-bear-one-anothers-burdens/
Lateef, A. (2018, September 12). 11 Bible Verses for Those Facing Natural Disasters.
Guideposts. https://guideposts.org/prayer/bible-resources/11-bible-verses-for-
those facing-natural-disasters/
M. McGarrity, (2019), Confronting the Rise of Domestic Terrorism in the Homeland, [Article],
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Counterterrorism Division Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI. (2025). Terrorism. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism
Benjamin, D. (2008, October 22). Strategic Counterterrorism. Brookings.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/strategic-counterterrorism/
Doxsee, C., & Harrington, J. (2021, June 17). The First U.S. National Strategy for
Countering Domestic Terrorism. Www.csis.org. https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-
us national-strategy-countering-domestic-terrorism
Benefits of Earning a Disaster Management Degree. (2022, May 13).
Publichealth.tulane.edu. https://publichealth.tulane.edu/blog/disaster-management-degree/
