How to Think about Homeland Security

Risk, Threats, and the New Normal

By (author) David H. McIntyre

Publication date:

14 October 2019

Length of book:

250 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

264x183mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781538125762

Risk, Threats and the New Normal explains the new political and technological developments that created new domestic national security threats against the nation and the people of the United States. The book traces the development of and competition between national preparedness (focused on people and property), and civil defense / security (focused on the defense of systems and infrastructure) since the latter days of World War I. Extensive policy research demonstrates a shift in federal (and hence state and local) focus over the last decade from WMD based Threats at the National Security Level (TNSL) back to more traditional hazards and disasters. A framework is offered to analyze and evaluate TNSL dangers to national power; it is applied to a case study involving a nuclear attack. Recommendations are offered to mitigate or prevent the potentially catastrophic aftermath. In Vol 3 this analysis will be extended to other TNSL events (chemical, biological, radiological, etc.) and the actors who must prepare for them.

List of Figures, Tables, and Textboxes
Foreword by General Ralph Eberhart
Acknowledgments
About This Series
Introducing the Concept of Frameworks: Thinking About Thinking About Homeland Security

Part I: Thinking About Risk

Threat, Preparedness and Defense: A History of Adapting to a New Normal
From Countering Terrorism to a Preparedness System: Rethinking Homeland Security
The DHS Risk Management Process
Improving the Utility, and Reducing the Risk, of Risk
Following the Clues: The Shifting Focus of Risk Management
A Brother by Another Mother: Risk Management for Critical Infrastructure

Part II: Thinking About Threats

Not All MOMs Are Created Equal: The TNSL Test
The Special Danger of Terrorism at the National Security Level
The Nature, Character and Conduct of War
The Dangerous Enigma of Terrorism
Terrorism as Criminal War

Part III: Thinking About the New Normal

A Framework for Thinking About Threats and the New Normal
Shall we Play a Game? (Preparedness and a Nuclear MOM)
From Preparedness to National Defense (Nuclear TNSL MOM)
TNSL MOMs, Bad DADs, and a Newer New Normal

Index
About the Author

A retired colonel in the US Army, McIntyre (now, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M Univ.) wrote How to Think about Homeland Security to educate future homeland security professionals on how terrorists wielding new and lethal technologies could decimate the US. His intent is not to break new ground; rather, it is to introduce those willing to indulge this grisly mindset to the concepts and vocabulary of risk and threat assessment. The first of the set's two volumes is subtitled "The Imperfect Intersection of National Security and Public Safety." The chapters in volume 2 introduce basic concepts (part 1); provide a clear but terse summary of the strategy of successive presidents to guard against doomsday (part 2); and present new threats that terrorists can use to disrupt or destroy the basic infrastructure of US society (part 3).

Summing Up: Recommended. . . Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, students in technical programs, professionals.