Making the Nation Safer

In the aftermath of 9/11, the National Academies (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council) convened a committee of distinguished individuals to describe the role of science and technology in countering terrorism. Over a 6-month period, 164 individuals contributed to Making the Nation Safer, which was published in the summer of 2002.

Among the committee's observations (Making the Nation Safer, p. 343):

In light of the technical nature of the threats, as discussed throughout this report, it is clear that the government has insufficient capability to undertake scenario-based threat assessments, systems modeling of critical infrastructures, red teaming, economic and policy analysis of alternative counterterrorism policies, and development of testbeds, standards, and protocols to facilitate technology development and deployment. 

The committee therefore recommended the establishment of a dedicated, not-for-profit security technical analysis and support institute to provide essential input to government decision-makers as they grapple with decisions about priorities and programs. The committee's recommendation (Making the Nation Safer, p. 344) is shown below.

Recommendation 12.2: A Homeland Security Institute to provide technical analysis and support should be established to serve the organization that sets priorities for homeland security; this Institute would perform the following functions:

• Systems analysis, risk analysis, and simulation and modeling to determine the vulnerabilities of the nation's critical infrastructures and the effectiveness of the systems deployed to reduce them.
  
• Sophisticated economic and policy analysis to assess the distributed costs and benefits of alternative approaches to enhancing security.
  
• Red teaming to evaluate the effectiveness of measures deployed to enhance the security of target institutions, facilities, and infrastructure.
  
• Identification of instances when common standards and protocols are necessary to ensure interoperability and effective utilization of tools developed for field operators and first responders. The institute would cooperate with relevant federal agencies, such as NIST, in the development of these standards.
  
• Assistance for agencies in establishing testbeds to evaluate the effectiveness of technologies under development and to assess the appropriateness of such technologies for deployment.
  
• Design of metrics and use of these metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of homeland security programs throughout the government agencies and at national laboratories.
  
• Design of and support for the conduct of exercises and simulations.
  

A key characteristic of the proposed institute was a deep understanding of the technical issues relevant to important decisions—embodied by the highly specialized talent base required to perform the necessary studies and analyses. Recognizing that significant value derives from the leveraging of expertise and results across multiple studies and analyses, the committee recommended that “the responsibilities proposed for the institute should not be assigned to different organizations” (Making the Nation Safer, p. 346).