homeland security essay

Terrorism Preparedness: Assessment of the Preparedness of Chain Restaurants to Prevent and Respond to Terrorist Attack

David Jones

American Military University

HLSS498

Professor Matthew Stork

04/14/2017

Terrorism Preparedness: Assessment of the Preparedness of Chain Restaurants to Prevent and Respond to Terrorist Attack

Literature Review

Literature on key targets since 9/11

It is possible for an individual to posit that from the viewpoint of a terrorist, several components of the food supply chain are easy to attack. This argument emanates from the provision that terrorist targets are continually evolving, with a considerable number of terrorist groups choosing locations that could be considered as relatively easy to attack. According to Henderson et al. (2010), the instances as well as threat of terrorist attacks have affected the hospitality industry. The terrorist actions have the potential to create a crisis in the industry due to the vulnerability of the restaurant chains and hotels in different areas. Korstanje and Clayton (2012) posit that terrorists consider vulnerable targets to demonstrate that the state has failed to protect the residents and to create fear, panic and revolt.

One of the most fundamental constituents of the hospitality industry is the fast food restaurants among other hotel restaurants. These facilities employ a considerable number of individuals that focus on providing desired customer service. As part of the hospitality industry, restaurants play a part in the growth of the economy of a particular nation through the employment of a significant number of people (Purwomarwanto & Ramachandran, 2015). The hotel and restaurant industry also foster tourism, which contributes to the growth of an economy through foreign exchange earnings that contribute to an economy’s positive balance of payments. For this reason, a considerable number of nations have incorporated tourism as part of their long-term economic development planning provision. To accelerate economic growth in the different nations, it would be imperative for the countries to come up with strategies that would ensure the safety of the individuals visiting the establishments in the industry from terrorist attacks.

The need to ensure the safety of patrons visiting different restaurants is not only a derivative of the need to secure the economic development of a nation, but also because different terrorist groups target such establishments. Previously, terrorist attacks were directed to high value targets such as different embassies, commercial and governmental buildings, as well as military bases (Hanson, 2005). However, there is a significant shift being experienced in the sense that terrorists are targeting relatively unguarded establishments that are inclusive of restaurants and shopping malls. A physical assessment of the location of a considerable number of shopping malls reveals that they are shifting towards attracting a considerable number of restaurants. A significant number of terrorist attacks are being carried out on these soft targets. The relative ease of attacking such places as well as the difficulty to secure them effectively makes them key targets.

Since 9/11, terrorists have been identifying soft targets that they could attack. Even though the soft targets vary depending on their location, the size of the community around the target, among other elements, restaurants constitute such targets. With the consideration that restaurants fall into the category of soft targets, some of the preventive steps that could be taken are inclusive of the increment of police patrols around such areas since they are considered as high-priority sites (Hanson, 2005). The September 11 attack inspired the creation of laws as well as regulations that intended to keep potential terrorists out of the United States. Being a developed nation, restaurants remained the potential soft targets for the terrorists, thereby creating a new risk that includes a bioterrorist attack on the nation’s food chain. In this regard, food contamination could be identified as the probable target for restaurant chains, which is a consideration that does not only put the lives of people at risk, but also has the potential of damaging the economy of a nation.

The evolution of terror threats in hospitality

David Wernick and Mary Von Glinow (2012) provide a considerable number of instances revealing the evolving terrorist threats and attacks on different establishments in the hospitality industry. The examples they provide indicate that terrorists focused on attacking significant business sectors, such as the hospitality industry, consequently killing and injuring many people, as well as damaging the infrastructure of the different entities in the industry. It would be possible for an individual to posit that the overall purpose of these attacks, alongside the fatalities and injuries experienced, is to extort political as well as other concessions, from different sectors in the damaged government, including the economic sector.

According to Wernick and Von Glinow (2012), some of the methods that the terrorist groups used to attack establishments in the hospitality industry before 9/11 were largely through bombs and random shootings. The authors indicate that terrorist wore suicide bombs, consequently detonating them in various hotels around different locations, while others used suicide car bombs, guns and grenades. The fundamental reasons the authors give in line with the selection of the different hotels as targets include the aspect that hotels are open environments that have several points of entrance (Wernick, & Von Glinow, 2012). The traffic in the hotels and restaurants that the terrorists attacked was high, meaning that they could execute their attacks with the expectation of a significant number of casualties and damage.

There is a possibility of arguing that the 9/11 attacks encouraged countries to invest in sophisticated bomb detecting technology, which is a provision that might have made it difficult for the terror groups to consider using bombs more frequently. Based on this argument, gunmen attacks have been witnessed in various locations. For instance, William Patterson (2015) provides an account of an attack that happened in a Kenyan shopping mall, Westgate, which brought the attention of a considerable number of security agencies to the threat that the country was facing. Patterson (2015) indicates that four gunmen attacked shoppers, individuals in different restaurants in the mall, and the employees in the mall, consequently leaving more than 65 people dead. The example provided indicates that the terrorists consider using gunmen as the preferred method to attack some of the identified soft targets.

In spite of the identified methods as used by the terror groups, the level of terror threat of the hospitality industry, which forms part of the food supply chain, lies in its vulnerability. In this regard, the connection between the hospitality industry and the food supply chain is based on the close cooperation that the participants in the industry have with food producers, processors, and traders. Apart from posing a threat to the food supply chain, the other methods that the terrorist use to cause chaos in the hospitality industry is through kidnapping foreign tourists in a nation (Ekechukwu, 2013). Such kidnappings can threaten the hospitality industry since tourists are unlikely to visit destinations where they occur, consequently creating a negative economic impact to the host nation. In response to the considered attacks, it would be essential for hotels to implement technical as well as physical measures that could control the free-flow of individuals as well as vehicles to the various hotel areas (Paraskevas, 2013).

References

Ekechukwu, L. C. (2013). Social Disorder And Its Implications For Tourism Development In Nigeria. Nigeria Village Square.

Hanson, D. (2005). What's next - Soft Target Attacks. Law Enforcement Technology, 32(8), 18-24, 26-27.

Henderson, J., Shufen, C., Huifen, L., & Xiang, L. L. (2010). Tourism and terrorism: A hotel industry perspective. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts, 2(1), 33-46.

Korstanje, M. E., & Clayton, A. (2012). Tourism and terrorism: conflicts and commonalities. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 4(1), 8-25.

Paraskevas, A. (2013). Aligning strategy to threat: a baseline anti-terrorism strategy for hotels. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(1), 140-162.

Patterson, W. R. (2015). Islamic Radicalization in Kenya. JFQ: Joint Force Quarterly, (78), 16-23.

Purwomarwanto, Y. L., & Ramachandran, J. (2015). Performance of Tourism Sector With Regard To the Global Crisis - A Comparative Study between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(4), 325-339.

Wernick, D. A., & Von Glinow, M. A. (2012). Reflections on the evolving terrorist threat to luxury hotels: A case study on Marriott International. Thunderbird International Business Review, 54(5), 729-746.