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Domestic Contexts of National Security
Helms School of Government, Liberty University
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Domestic Contexts of National Security
National Security is an intricate amalgamation of efforts related to international and
domestic factors to efficiently safeguard the nation, its assets, its citizens, and their way of life.
The United States of America maintains many structured tools to ensure a stable and successful
national security effort. Some of these tools are domestic-environment centric others target
international factors. The domestic and international tools and institutions that the United States
has in place pose specific challenges for the nation regarding political, social, and financial
elements. The domestic institutions that exist today were put in place by American leaders as a
response to new-world threats and changing priorities.
National Security Act of 1947
Shortly after World War II, the Truman administration designed and implemented the
National Security Act of 1947 (Milestones in the history of the US foreign relations, 2018).
Through the National Security Act of 1947, the United States of America established a structured
framework that transformed a dated, disorganized, and bureaucratic system into a modernized
and durable apparatus. One of the many changes stemming from the National Security Act was
the manner in which the United States approached foreign policy. It reorganized agencies,
created new organizations, and built tools specifically designed for executive decision-makers to
use through different types of adversities.
The National Security Act established five different institutions to specifically focus on
the domestic context of national security (Snow, 2020). Through World War II, the United States
Army and Navy were independent agencies which created a lack of communication and
efficiency between the two military branches. The partitioning proved to be an encumbrance
which is why the act created the Department of Defense (DOD). Through the act, the United
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States Army and Navy merged under a singular military entity to ensure better communication
and coordination. The merge established a uniform approach to warfare logistics, resource
allocation, and financial organization. The creation of the Department of Defense was one of the
five institutions the act created to target domestic national security.
The second institution implemented by the National Security Act was the Joint Chiefs of
Staff (Snow, 2020). The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a team that is made up of senior-level officers
from many different backgrounds and services. The team was established to build collaboration
across military branches and to devise a military-based plan of action to propose to the President
during conflict. Every military branch has a Chief of Staff, and every Chief of Staff serves as a
member of the team.
The third institution put in place by the National Security Act was the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Snow, 2020). The CIA is a federal government agency specifically
developed to gather intelligence and analyze it. The CIA was the nation’s first and only
intelligence agency to remain permanently active. The CIA is active through collection and
analysis of intelligence even throughout time periods when the country is not at war.
The fourth domestic institution created by the act was the US Air Force (Stevenson,
2013). Prior to the creation of the Air Force, US air assets were split between the US Army and
US Navy. It was evident that air assets needed its own independent branch to better structure air
roles throughout the military. For this reason, the act specifically detailed the creation of the Air
Force military branch.
The fifth institution put in place by the act was the National Security Council (NSC)
(Hadley, et al., 2021). Leaders at every level often deal with uncharted waters and must develop
a plan to move forward through adversity. Leaders, in order to make the best and most informed
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decisions through challenging situations, sometimes need to seek the advice of subject matter
experts (National Security Council, 2020). This is the reason why the National Security Council
was created. The NSC is a group of highly trusted advisors, chosen by the current president, to
help the him generate a plan of action, implement newly developed foreign policies, approach
situations dealing with massive social unrest, and more.
With the National Security Act of 1947, the Truman administration created a completely
new and organized structure changing how the United States handles specific challenges dealing
with national security (Curry, 2021). Additionally, the five institutions changed the way the
United States’ foreign policy is addressed and shaped. The domestic institutions are still in place
to this day and have significantly modified the manner in which the President of the United
States proceeds through domestic turmoil impacting the nation’s security posture. The
institutions, while providing the nation with structural benefit can sometimes also fuel
challenges.
Domestic Responses to National Security Developments
The United States has evolved in many different aspects. Population has grown,
technology has advanced, and threats to the United States and its domestic soil have increased
(Reveron et al., 2015). With the evolution of technology and transportation, the devastating
events of September 11, 2001, occurred. By the time 9/11 happened, the United States had a
relatively solid national security structure in place that included intelligence gathering and
analysis. However, there was an apparent lack of communication and coordination between
agencies and a lack of efficiency in briefing actionable intelligence up the chain of command
(Snow, 2020). With the events of 9/11 and the identification of a gap to bridge, the United States
created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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The DHS is an agency that focuses on ensuring the physical protection of the United
States and the American people. The creation of the DHS in 2002 was a large effort that the
government undertook. At first, the White House created the position called the Office of
Homeland Security and secured an office within the White House for DHS’s very first director,
Director Tom Ridge (Snow, 2020). A few months later, the United States government chose to
grow the Office of the Homeland Security and increase its responsibilities by adding four
priorities for the agency to focus on. The four priorities included the security of the US border
and US transportation, maintaining a steady readiness for emergency response, counter measures
for nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological efforts, and ensuring the protection of US
infrastructure while providing intelligence analysis.
With the implementation of the DHS and its four priorities, the United States modernized
its effort to ensure the nation’s security and ability to maintain a higher level of emergency
readiness. President George W. Bush considered the implementation of the DHS as the largest
and most impactful reorganization of government entities since the National Security Act of
1947 (Snow, 2020). The DHS, along with the five previously discussed domestic institutions,
posed several different challenges to the nation and its national security policymaking. The
challenges imposed by the domestic institutions, put in place for a domestic response to national
security developments, include the competition between domestic agencies for financial
resources, prioritization, and turf wars over responsibilities.
Financial Challenges of the Domestic Institutions
The United States has a large apparatus made up of domestic institutions to shape
America’s national security policy. The country, however, has one solid budget that the
government must divide between institutions to prioritize efforts (Snow, 2020). National security
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policy demands significant financial expenditure which causes tension between institutions when
fighting for budgetary support. This is one of the many challenges that the United States
government faces when dealing with its domestic institutions in shaping foreign policy and
national security.
Finances and budgeting have a tendency to increase tension levels between government
entities. The country’s national defense requires a high amount of financial prioritization,
however, so do many other federal categories. The United States’ largest budget is the budget for
American entitlements (Snow, 2020). This budget includes Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security
Benefits and more. Second to that is the largest federal discretionary account specifically for
United States defense efforts. These two different budgets have a tendency to create tension and
challenges within the American population on a social and political level.
People who support higher prioritization of national security and its policymaking efforts
argue that more financial support should be added to the defense budget. Those who oppose
would rather have the country focus on social spending through entitlement programs (Snow,
2020). Although there are people who firmly stand on either side, many Americans stand in the
middle of this dilemma. Military members, for example, feel strongly towards maintaining a safe
and secure nation though the majority of enlisted service members come from a lower class to
middle class family. Coming from a lower to middle class social group, people usually need the
benefits programs that the entitlement budget supports. The tension that financial prioritization
causes intensified challenges that affect the nation’s security posture.
Political Challenges of the Domestic Institutions
Along with the financial challenges that the United States’ domestic institutions face
when dealing with national security, they also deal with other challenges. The creation of the
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DHS, for example, posed many intricate difficulties in shaping the nation’s security. Due to the
immediate growth of expectation that the United States government had of the newly developed
Office of Homeland Security, it was clear that the office needed additional manpower to
implement the new vision (Snow, 2020). As a result, almost 200,000 federal government
employees, previously assigned under other federal agencies, were moved into the DHS.
The implementation of this effort did not take into account the different challenges it
would pose from its shift in personnel (Snow, 2020). One of the challenges the nation faced
through this development was that the 200,000 employees transferred to the DHS experienced
adversity because they were now working with individuals who were used to working under
different conditions, for different priorities, and in different work cultures. The United States
expected DHS employees to act as a unified team yet provided zero effort in ensuring proper
coordination, stable method of operation, and no unified culture. The change also created tension
between all of the different federal agencies through a turf war over their overlapping
responsibilities. The CIA, FBI, and agencies within the DHS are agencies who play a significant
role in the nation’s security. However, the compartmentalization of assets causes an ineffective
communication stream potentially hindering the nation’s security.
The tendency that the DHS has in overlapping efforts with other agencies (federal, state,
and local) creates a difficult and challenging political and controversial issue as well. When
Hurricane Katrina happened, for example, the DHS responded due to its assigned priority of
emergency readiness. Emergency readiness, however, is something that local and state
governments normally take care of. Katrina’s relief response fueled a competition for resource
allocation between local, state, and federal entities hindering the effectiveness of government
efforts (Snow, 2020).
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Conclusion
Since the birth of the nation, the United States has implemented various tools to ensure
efficient and successful efforts in running the country. The National Security Act of 1947
implemented five specific institutions that shape the nations security and policymaking. Through
the years and the development of the country, additional domestic institutions and
reorganizational efforts assisted the president in securing the nation. The discussed domestic
institution, however, pose various challenges to include financial, social, and political tension.
These challenges are still active to this day and must be accounted for by the federal government
in order to properly assess the prioritization of the nations’ needs ultimately affecting how the
nation implements its policy-making for national security.
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References
Curry, D. (2021, May 18). Lesson 4: The Domestic Context of National Security. [Presentation].
https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/197837/pages/watch-the-domestic-context-of-national-
security?module_item_id=25057340
Hadley, S., Powell, C., O’Sullivan, M. (2021, May 18). An Introduction to the National Security
Council. [Presentation]. https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/197837/pages/watch-an-
introduction-to-the-national-security-council?module_item_id=25057341.
Milestones in the history of the US foreign relations, (2018, April 8). Office of the Historian.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/national-security-act
National Security Council (2020, May 17). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/
Reveron, D., Gvosden, N., Owens, M. (2015). US foreign policy and defense strategy: The
evolution of an incidental superpower. Georgetown University Press.
Snow, D. (2020). National Security. Routledge.
Stevenson, C. (2013). America’s Foreign Policy Toolkit: Key Institutions and Processes. Sage
Publications Inc.
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