Critical Infrastructure : The United States Forward As A World Dominating Force Essay

Intelligence and Warning is Border and Transportation Security is responsible for protecting America's borders, territorial waters, and transportation systems by centralizing information-sharing and databases that track and monitor all aspects of border control and America's transportation systems. Domestic Counterterrorism covers a wide variety of activities, ranging from National Security Agency monitoring of telephone conversations to local police monitoring of persons of interest. Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets identifies a clear set of national goals and objectives and outlines the guiding principles that will underpin our efforts to secure the infrastructures and assets vital to our national security, governance, public health and safety, economy, and public confidence. Defending against Catastrophic Threats reduces vulnerability of the United States to terrorism. Emergency Preparedness and Response will create one emergency response plan to be used at all levels of government and will ensure that first-responders, from the federal government level down to local levels, receive proper training and equipment.

Over the years, lawmakers didn’t make big investments into infrastructure in the U.S. because they didn’t know how to fund infrastructure without raising taxes or adding to the national deficit. So, the root cause of a problem like neglected infrastructure in the U.S. stems from American political processes. Political processes are basically how something gets done. In 2009, fiscally conservative Republicans turned down a $478 billion investment plan for infrastructure (Berman, 2015). But, I don’t think that lawmakers can keep putting off on investments in public safety because the U.S. is losing economic competitiveness, jobs, and growth. One of Trump’s biggest campaign promises was revitalizing U.S. roads, bridges, and airports. Trump says that his $550 billion infrastructure plan will grow the U.S. economy and create more jobs (Great Again, 2015). Trump’s also planning on private-sector investors funding this project with tax credits to give investors a return on their investments. I think it’s about time for a more reliable and efficient transportation system. For example, in 2007, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145 people (Change, 2007). Faulty design led to the bridge collapse. One more example is an Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing 8 people and injuring 200 people (Calvert & Loftus, 2015). The train accelerated toward a curve but investigators didn’t know if the engineer caused the train to speed up, if there was a mechanical error, or if there was something about the track that cased the crash. Airports in the U.S. are also operating beyond the capacity that they were intended to manage and that’s why terminals are crowded and there’s longer waiting times to get through customs especially at international airports. One time, Joe Bidden even compared LaGuardia Airport in New York to “some

It is essential to understand America’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) and National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) to ensure survivability of its critical assets, while maintaining security for America. “The plans are carried out in practice by an integrated network of Federal departments and agencies, State and local government agencies, private sector entities, and a growing number of regional consortia (DHS, 2009, p. I).” Several agencies work together to mitigate attacks on CIKR to protect public safety and security of the nation. A terrorist may stop at nothing to carry out an attack on CIKR. If an attack or natural disaster does transpire, each agency working together to restore the damage must be timely. Additionally, NIPP helps to identify hazards associated with the various sectors, and provides necessary security measures to harden resources (DHS,

The attack of 9/11/2001 shocked the entire United States. The government, President, and every civilian felt the fear from this day, and the vulnerability of this country came quickly and surprisingly evident. With such a disaster occurring in New York City, one of the largest cities in the United States, killing thousands and injuring many more, the United States was under an awakening of an unfortunate and obvious need for increased security in various aspects, specifically the industry of transit.

The tragic events of 9/11, have drastically added to the myriad of recognized risk types and threats as well as the security recommended and required to counter those threats. The Security Manager must be aware of current threat trends, as well as mitigation strategies for the risks identified by the stakeholders. The mitigation strategies vary depending on the type of asset, location, threats and level of risk. These risks can include the spectrum of natural events and disasters, human-caused events as well as the secondary events spawned by primary events. This paper will examine special event security, its purpose, and when such security is recommended.

During the course of this paper I will be evaluating the U.S security since 9/11, evaluating their ability to be resilient and evaluating how much progress has been done since 9/11. So you might ask, what is resilience? Resilience is defined as the ability to undergo obstacles and negative situations; and within that, overcome and recover. Prior to 9/11, there were several practices which were acceptable in our transportation system but today are no longer; let’s take a look at a few;

The defense, security, and safety American citizens enjoy each and every day is a result of dedicated professionals committed to Homeland Security and Homeland Defense. These broad initiatives require well-defined missions, organized and focused tasking, and finally, clearly understood duties, responsibilities, and operations. Organizations charged with these responsibilities must be better resourced than those of the enemy. Success in each of these objectives requires a well-organized infrastructure with clear mission sets. The afore mentioned areas of responsibility, related planning, and resource/personnel management are fluid (rightfully so) and are constantly reevaluated, restructured, and/or reinforced to best counterattack our Nation’s vulnerabilities before they become casualties.

The ability of the Department of Homeland Security to effectively manage risk is vital to national security. Risk in general, is something that is permanent but because this is known, strategies can be used to mitigate situations as they present themselves. Government managers must manage risk in a complex environment taking into consideration the diverse missions and multiple objectives of public agencies (Hardy, 2014). The role of risk management within the homeland security enterprise was managed by best and worst case scenario planning. This is something that is inevitable as we are faced within a definite variety of threats. One way to grade or rank threats is through worst-case analysis. As this analysis can be used for worst-case scenarios the federal government cannot leave out lower ranking situations (Roberts, 2007). Since the Department of Homeland Security is charged with managing risk within the enterprise, a basic equation is used to help figure out different variables and how they would be affected.

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States, a series of risk management evaluations were created by the US Federal Government to assess the future risks the homeland was going to face. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was officially created in 2002, more effective risk management assessments were re-designed to evaluate the past and present dangers, prevent them and respond successfully to more terrorist attacks. Since 2001 until 2007, a development of risk assessment has been divided in phases to be able to reach a better formula that would analyze the risk within the homeland security and provide the appropriate fund to homeland security enterprise.

Below we outline the core elements of such a successful national strategy for infrastructure resilience.

Throughout the United States of America, our infrastructure demands to be repaired. Since the rapid expansion of our infrastructure in the early to mid 1900’s, the basis of our nation, the infrastructure we rely upon, has outlived its life. At this very moment, money, an item in high-demand, is lost due to a large quantity of failures within our infrastructure. Everyday, sewage lines leak, gas pipelines explode, roads crumble and form potholes, power outages occur, and many other infrastructure failures take place. As the United States of America seeks to expand its economy, the need to renew the rapidly aging infrastructure should not be neglected.

The private sector plays a vital role in carrying out the objectives within all 16 sector specific plans. The Emergency Services Sector includes but is not limited to first responding services such as; public work, fire, medical or police services. The goals and objectives of ESS specific plans are to provide first responder services as one of their main missions is the prevention to life. This sector is extremely important as they are the first responders to any type of incident that may even be impacted to other sectors. The National Infrastructure Protection Plan for this sector describes the tasks, duties and responsibilities that the private sector has in order to effectively and successfully operate this types of critical infrastructures. Just like any other sector, this sector requires the private sector to have a good relationship with state, local, tribal, territorial governments, Federal Government and outside organizations as well. Threats, risks, and vulnerabilities are acknowledged and analyzed in every respective infrastructure as they are all different. All factors are then prioritized in order to prevent the best security and mitigate the possible consequences. Public and private sectors must have the ability to continue their businesses and operations after an event has occurred. When an incident of event occur, operating plans must be created and established in order to prevent stoppages or deterrence to the operations. This helps reduce the

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.

The distinction between homeland security and homeland defense is pivotal in gaining a better understanding of how these agencies work and how they correlate to our nations infrastructure. We must understand the designated missions set forth for both these agencies while learning how they meet the tasks appointed to them and resources utilized to accomplish the mission. Learning the fundamentals of our nations infrastructure information must be provided to showcase how these agencies utilize the appropriate resources to guarantee the security of these critical infrastructures. Offering an opinion in the definition of homeland security and how resources are being utilized to fix vulnerabilities is vital to showcase what is being distributed and learned on a researchers and readers level. Homeland security and homeland defense play a pivotal role in ensuring our borders are protected.