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By Rod Propst
Published 5/20/2009
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The vulnerability of energy production critical infrastructure in the United States indicates the real potential for attacks on these facilities by transnational terrorists. Al-Qaeda, among others, has specifically mentioned its desire for a nuclear yield weapon. Nuclear materials onsite at our power production facilities represent the most direct route for these adversaries to obtain the capability for an attack producing a nuclear yield. The means and methods would be via the assembly of a nuclear improvised explosive device onsite. Al-Qaeda’s modus operandi and stated desire, coupled with its innovative, thorough attack means and methods, makes this threat a viable scenario of concern. Worse, all of the required information to complete such attacks is visible to even the most unimaginative researcher, using the Internet and other open-source materials. Given that potential, the article presents a six-step road ahead that establishes a better protective profile approach: a paradigm designed to lessen the vulnerability and the attractiveness of these facilities as terrorist targets.
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By Yildirim Uryan, Gerald-Mark Breen, and Jonathan Matusitz
Published 5/15/2009
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This article analyzes the status of U.S. aviation security by describing its advantages and disadvantages and by recommending policies that could improve it. Systems theory is used. This analysis also compares the U.S. private system with the European Union public system. Overall, the latter scores much higher in terms of indicators such as airport screener performance, checkpoints, screener training, screener pay and benefits, screener turnover, and acuity with rules.
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By Jerry Lavely and John Legters
Published 4/28/2009
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This article presents a model for building communities of interest in order to create intentional and derivative networks to synchronize activities, create unity of effort, and combine disparate entities at the strategic, operational, and tactical (point-of-presence) levels. Combining these communities of interest into a synchronized network provides otherwise unattainable ability for successful problem solving and improved productivity. Borrowing from highly successful Defense Department and governmental interagency efforts and work done in certain corporations and nonprofits, it illustrates an adaptable and scalable template that holistically forms and employs private, public, or public- and private-sector communities of interest to build a self-regulating, self-synchronizing network. This article walks through the theory and applications, provides examples of success, and demonstrates how to successfully optimize talent and opportunities within organizations to form an agile and responsive problem-solving network.
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By James E. McGinley
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In Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy, Tamara Cofman Wittes challenges the failure of the Bush administration to advance its democracy agenda and the inability of incumbent Arab states to accommodate the rising needs and aspirations of their citizens. At stake is world stability in the face of an unsustainable status quo and seismic forces of social change. James E. McGinley reviews the book.
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By Mark S. Hamm
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Terrorism as Crime brings a practical criminological perspective to the counterterrorism field, which tends to be dominated by studies of the sociopolitical factors that stimulate such terrorist groups, rather than studies of the means by which such groups support themselves and execute their plans. The analysis and policy advice, supported by detailed dissections of counterterrorism investigations and trials, may appeal to government officials and the layperson alike. Joseph Wheatley reviews the book.
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By Yukinori Komine
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Professor Komine has produced a very useful book on a seminal period of American and world history, says reviewer Richard C. Thornton. Writing about the U.S. opening to China, based on newly available archival material, Komine takes the reader through the labyrinthine intricacies of Washington’s bureaucratic politics, describing concentric rings of secrecy in which only the President himself knew the full magnitude of the events he set in motion, including others only as they became integral to the implementation of his vision. Richard C. Thornton reviews the book.
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Articles last updated 5/20/2009
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Book Reviews last updated 6/15/2009
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By Kaitlin H. Johnson, Andrea Davis, Mark Santos, Brian Vitelli, and Bruce Rudy
Published 2/27/2009
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Formal personal protective equipment training courses are currently not available to the public nationwide and are usually available only in a workforce setting that requires the specific use of the equipment. Educating the public on personal protective equipment use before an emergency can decrease public panic and allow public health professionals to more effectively and efficiently respond to public health needs during a crisis.
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By Jack Jarmon
Published 9/30/2008
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Jack Jarmon argues that the goal of frictionless trade need not conflict with the goal of secure trade if two distinct business imperatives converge into a single, seamless process organically linking security, production, and distribution, perhaps encouraged by a counterterrorism investment tax credit.
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By Brandon Fried
Published 8/8/2008
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Brandon Fried, Executive Director of the Airforwarders Association, discusses security operations at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport—arguably the most protected aviation facility in the world—which Fried visited in May 2008 with a group of airport managers, Department of Homeland Security officials, elected community leaders, and biometric experts.
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7/17/2008
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The journal interviews Elaine C. Duke, Homeland Security Deputy Under Secretary for Management, about the Homeland Security Department’s plans for the transition to a new presidential administration.
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10/16/2006
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The journal interviews Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, who discusses the challenges facing the Coast Guard today.
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5/24/2006
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Quartel discusses the Dubai Ports World sale, cargo security, and international trade.
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Commentaries last updated 2/27/2009
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Interviews last updated 7/17/2008
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Homeland Security Institute
2900 South Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22206 |
U.S. Department of
Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
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