The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 1
Abstract
The emergency management of terrorism briefly discusses the formation of the Department of
Homeland Security and its relationship to terrorism. The overarching mission of the Department
of Homeland Security is addressed shedding light on its purpose and reason to exist. Following
this, the emergency management phase of mitigation is examined to show the efforts done to
prevent and otherwise limit the number of damages or casualties taken from an attack. In the
next phase, preparedness is analyzed in depth specifically toward terrorism attacks and threats
and what can be done with the communities to assist these efforts. After preparedness, response
to a disaster is examined to analyze what is done to properly manage a terrorist attack whether it
is on a local level or from a federal level. The final phase is recovery which is a lengthy
operation calling on all organizations to work together as they should have to some degree in the
preparedness phase, a debriefing to analyze how things were running, and identifying weak areas
to focus on reinforcing in the future. The conclusion will result in a summary regarding what was
discussed and researched on the emergency management of terrorism.
Keywords: Homeland Security, terrorism, emergency management
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 2
Emergency Management of Terrorism
Overview
Terrorism has been a primary focal point in the United States government ever since the
attacks on 9/11/2001. Since this time the formation of The Department of Homeland Security
was established to focus on combatting terrorism and to re-organize the many agencies that
oversee protecting the nation and its borders. The mission of the Department of Homeland
Security is the following, “With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our
homeland, and our values” (Mission, 2019). The overarching mission is to defend the United
States from any threats, foreign and domestic and more specifically from terrorist attacks.
Terrorism is a very versatile and hostile threat to the American way of life, peace, and security of
the nation. Terrorism can be understood as a method to induce chaos and panic among
civilizations around the world, targeting societies that are sometimes thousands of miles away for
a multitude of reasons. The threat of an attack or harm to the critical infrastructure, population, or
government is imminent which is why society must do its part to contribute to assisting in the
management of a terrorist attack.
Mitigation
The first phase of emergency management of terrorism is mitigation. This phase is
essentially taking measures to limit the effects of an attack, prevent damages, prevent loss of life,
and lower the probability of a severe attack from occurring. To mitigate a terrorist attack calls on
many factors one of which is conducting a risk assessment to identify what would be the soft
targets or the more difficult areas of targeting (McEntire, 2018). The threat assessment would
assist in the planning utilized moving forward in emergency management, to ensuring structures
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 3
are equipped appropriately, security is established, lighting is present and drowns out any
possible avenue of approach, and reinforcing any type of architectural design where needed to
establish greater security (McEntire, 2018). Outside of the soft targets, the risk assessment will
identify any critical infrastructure, allowing us again to establish greater security measures for
the specific areas of concern (McEntire, 2018).
Structural design contributes to a large area of focus in mitigating the risk of a terrorist
attack. These structural designs consist of many areas, some of which are the design of the
building, The design can consist of columns, reinforcing masonry, type of material used in the
construction of the building, steel frame systems, and roofing (DHS, 2011). Other areas of
concern would be the location of the building, its assets contained, ventilation system, bollards,
parking garages, and bollards to assist in preventing any attacks from entering such as a VBIED
or vehicle born improvised explosive device (DHS, 2011). The structural designs of buildings
can potentially make or break an attack from occurring. The measures taken in the development
of a building can prevent, deter, and stop an attack.
Non-structural mitigation factors also have the potential to prevent attacks from occurring
even if the structure of the building or target area lacks structurally sound defenses. One of the
non-structural methods would be zoning. This method is to establish regulations on where a
building can be located (McEntire, 2018). A good example of this was given by McEntire,
explaining that one would not build an industrial plant nearby or next to an elementary school
and same vice versa. The use of zoning would prevent this occurrence and regulations would
establish these limits of construction and location. Additionally, establishing setback
requirements forces the builders to establish where a building is to be built about nearby roads
and parking lots allowing for greater security to those when needing to evacuate from an attack,
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 4
fire, or structural disaster as recently seen in Florida (Baker et. al., 2021). Outside of these two
methods, establishing security, barriers, and ensuring vegetation and lighting are present would
provide greater deterrence to those wishing to harm an organization or structure (DHS, 2011).
Identifying these areas, building these structures to be more resilient, and providing greater
nonstructural tools lead to the next phase of emergency management when on terrorism and this
is the preparedness phase of emergency management.
Preparedness
During the preparedness phase, it is focused on just that, preparing the American people,
government, and critical infrastructure from the potential terrorist attack. “Preparedness is a
continuous process involving efforts to identify threats, determine vulnerabilities, and identify
required resources” (DHS, 2019). Essentially, the process of preparing for an attack or any threat
is a constant effort to form a safer and more secure nation. To prepare for a terrorist attack is to
ensure that the many elements needed to respond efficiently are educated, trained, and connected
to establish a sufficient flow and relationship ensuring the response is swift and with few issues.
To prepare for an attack many areas must be examined to capitalize when amid an attack.
One area specifically is in the scope of those that are within the intelligence community. To
prepare for something, one must establish the means of the attack, if possible, the location,
methods, and what resources will be required to properly combat it. The national response
framework establishes the relationships and necessity of these communities to work in
conjunction with one another. Without the ability to share the intel, the community can
potentially overlook or entirely miss an important detail essentially failing to equip communities
with the necessary resources to respond and recover from an attack. The NRF calls on the entire
nation to come together, calling on executives to communicate, train, and execute exercises
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 5
together to maximize efficiency when disaster strikes (McEntire, 2018). The NRF has set in
place guidance for the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management
System (NIMS). “ICS is important to ensuring interoperability across multijurisdictional or
multiagency incident management activities” (DHS, 2019). Without agencies of all levels
working together, the response to an attack may be prevented or not fully able to be conducted
due to lack of resources (i.e., personal, materials, medical care).
The establishment of councils within communities allows for education to be given to
those on the ground that may not be working within a government agency (McEntire, 2018).
Establishing these councils opens doors to other possibilities in forming an emergency
management team, organizing intelligence gathered from a multitude of agencies, and involving
more of the people within the community. Developing an emergency manager allows for greater
communication, organization of resources, and further development of emergency management
teams in the area allowing for a better and quicker response. Developing a broader preparation
plan allows for more training to be conducted and given to the people to educate more citizens to
contribute more to the arsenal needed to draw on in times of distress. Conducting exercises with
the citizens of the community, local agencies, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based
organizations would give greater coordination maximizing the fluidness of operations in
response and recovery.
Response
The third phase in emergency management is response. This phase “is focused on
ensuring that the Nation is able to effectively respond to any threat or hazard, including those
with cascading effects” (DHS, 2019). Specifically, about terrorism, it is imperative to coordinate
the first responders, establish clear avenues of approach and organize the necessary assets to
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 6
secure, investigate, and when applicable neutralize the threat. Upon responding to a terrorist
attack or threat, a task force should be called up to combat the threat and secure the area to either
limit the movement(s) in the area, establish a perimeter to improve security to those in the
community maximizing the safety of the people. Aside from this, the area must be closely
monitored and investigated to improve security by identifying additional threats whether they be
structural or non-structural, and if there are secondary attackers or devices within the area
(McEntire, 2018). Those first-responders and emergency managers responding to the attack carry
a heavy burden to manage the area and to quickly assess the damages. Upon assessing the
environment, they must establish a casualty collection point, and an avenue to be used primarily
for the transportation of those that are ambulatory and in need of more serious medical attention.
During the operations and collection of the victims, search and rescue teams will be in the area to
free those that may be trapped or otherwise unaccounted for (McEntire, 2018). A final segment
to this phase is the interaction with the media. The media is a great method to broadcast a
warning to those within the area to deter individuals from traveling through, warn those of what
has occurred and give shelter in place or evacuation order for those within a certain radius of the
attack when applicable. The response phase is very delicate and intricate which calls on all
agencies, local, state, tribal, federal, NGOs, and FBOs to actively respond to assist in a hasty
recovery through proper planning, operational coordination, transportation, health and safety
response, fatality management, stabilize critical infrastructure, and providing security to the area
effected (DHS, 2015).
Recovery
The recovery phase is the final piece of the puzzle to emergency management and holds
the responsibility of rebuilding and resecuring the American way of life, critical infrastructure,
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 7
and community that may have been impacted by an attack or disaster. The National Response
Plan frames the response to a disaster very well in the following excerpt:
“Recovery actions include the development, coordination, and execution of service- and
site-restoration plans and the reconstitution of government operations and services
through individual, private-sector, non-governmental, and public assistance programs.”
The recovery process is extremely extensive, calling on all agencies from every level to
contribute to the affected community and area. The initial steps needed in this phase involve
assessing the damage taken essentially documenting the extent of the damages (McEntire, 2018).
Doing this will allow for resources to be pulled from surrounding areas, states, and when needed,
the federal government. When the federal government is needed for assistance, the disaster is
recognized to be a disaster. Upon the numerous resources needed for recovery operations, some
of the most crucial areas are mass fatality management, management of debris or obstructions,
crisis counseling, and the coordinating of volunteers, NGOs, and FBOs in their efforts to assist in
rebuilding the community. An area of recovery that can give the most beneficial insight is the
after-action report or debriefing on what has occurred, what worked well, what went wrong, and
what needs to be continued in the recovery efforts. These issues can range in the intelligence
collected beforehand did not provide as much insight, or maybe an organization did not work
well with another, and it resulted in the mishandling of the emergency. Communication and
training for an attack or responding to an attack can make the response smooth or it can make the
process incredibly difficult causing more harm to occur. With well-established management in
the response phase, one can expect to see new regulations and practices form on the other side of
the report to positively progress and learn from past mistakes allowing for better training to be
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 8
conducted. Better training then can result in better preparedness, response, and recovery as more
training conducted will allow for greater efficiency in managing a terrorist attack.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the management of terrorism is extremely intricate and holds many
moving pieces. Since September 11th, 2001, the United States has made it their prerogative to
focus many of its resources on identifying and addressing terrorism to further protect the nation
from any threat. Post-9/11 brought the formation of DHS and has allowed for the formation of
the NRF, ICS, and NIMS which has brought agencies together to prepare for an attack that will
one day occur. The framework calls on all executives to work in accordance with one another to
share information, train, and fight together. Coordinating resources from all levels of agencies is
a very difficult task that falls upon the shoulders of an emergency operations council and
emergency managers of organizations. Without leadership, the emergency management system
would struggle to be organized and to function like a well-oiled machine. The mitigation phase
established methods to further secure structures from terrorist attacks by structural and non-
structural means. The preparedness phase showed the many factors that can influence the
response and recovery operations. Without proper planning, communication, training, and
coordination of resources the final two phases will struggle to run smoothly. During the response
and recovery phase is where the preparedness and mitigation factors will be tested. The response
phase to terrorism involves every agency in the area to assess the damages, treat the victims, and
establish security, establish transportation routes, and conduct search and rescue operations. The
final phase, recovery is a much more extensive operation. This phase is utilized to rebuild the
community, critical infrastructure, assess the damages, clear debris, and organize volunteers,
FBOs, and NGOs to maximize their use. To manage a terrorist attack is no easy task whatsoever,
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the methods and tactics used in terrorism are seemingly endless as they are constantly evolving
which is why the intelligence community must work efficiently together to ensure all the details
that can be discovered are interpreted and analyzed closely in hopes of preventing or mitigating
the effects from an attack.
The Nexus of Homeland Security and Terrorism 10
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