The Importance Of Risk Management In Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed more than a decade ago with a very significant mission of safeguarding America's homeland from hazards, threats, and national disasters. This department conducts its mission through securing the country's borders, preventing terror attacks, and responding to incidents or threats to its citizens (Miller, n.d.). Generally, the most important roles of the Department of Homeland Security are to lead a concerted national effort in securing the United States and preserving the American way of life. The department was established in 2002 in reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks and has since developed a nationwide strategic plan for evaluating and updating its mission statement and effectiveness of operations. These plans can be updated and transformed to accomplish the needs of the Department for Homeland Security and the American people.

As we move into a new era were a more robust and urgent homeland security program is needed, it is important to talk about how officials are managing all of the risk. There are a multitude of threats; from terrorism, where tactics are all the more unconventional an unpredictable, to climate change, with extreme weather conditions causing severe droughts or other catastrophic storms. The risk accepted by federal officials must be weighed and prioritized in a manner that is conducive to the longevity of the nation but also eliminates political or other personal agenda. To ensure a standardized approach the Department of Homeland Security adopted a risk management. The following will look at defining what risk management is as well as an example of how it is being incorporated within the homeland security enterprise and how doing so is of benefit.

The homeland security is a department responsible for developing various mechanisms aimed at ensuring that the country is safe. The main focus of homeland security is to shield or reduce the cases of terror attacks. The prevention and response to both manmade and natural disasters also fall under homeland security (McElreath, Jensen, and Wigginton, 10). The Department of Homeland Security, therefore, has a broad range of responsibilities. At its formation in 2003, the department was composed of twenty-two federal agencies with over 180,000 employees. Homeland security’s formation was necessitated by the September 11th attacks in United States. Today, the Department of Homeland Security

The National Preparedness Goal under the direction of Presidential Policy Directive 8 outlines the means to which all facets of the nation can prepare. The stated objective of the National Preparedness Goal is to create “a secure and resilient Nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.” (NPG, 2015, p.5) That process starts with the completion of a risk assessment. “A risk assessment collects information regarding the threats and hazards, including the projected consequences or impacts.” (National Preparedness System, 2011, p.2) The method used to complete the assessment is the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) process.

When one thinks of security, they tend to think of being protected, free from harm or danger. There are various security threats that the world faces today. Threats could range from a series of cyber threats to terrorist attacks. We are incessantly encountered with catastrophic man-made and natural diseases. The Department of Homeland Security measures the nation 's vulnerabilities, meaning it takes initiative in leading and evaluating vulnerabilities and coordinating with other federal, state, local, and private entities to safeguard the most effective response. The creation of the country’s 15th Cabinet Department marked the largest reorganization of government since the Truman administration.

September 11, 2001, the worst terrorist attack on US soil to date, killing thousands of people, rocketed the nation. This led to formation of the Department of Homeland Security. While the department of Homeland Security has many responsibilities, one of its primary roles is preventing acts of terrorism like the 9/11 attacks. Terrorism is a broad subject matter, it can be hard to fully cover it. The Department of Homeland securities’ terrorism prevention plan attempt s to do this by breaking down into nine main components. The nine main components of homeland securities' terrorism prevention plan are Biological security, Chemical security, Nuclear Security, explosives, Countering Violent Extremism, Secure Driver's Licenses, The

The Department of Homeland Security is liable for establishing the safety and defense of the U.S. from terrorism and natural disasters. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America by terrorists, Department of Homeland Security’s main concern has been on federal measures to prevent terrorism attacks and handle other crisis situations. When the Department of Homeland Security was created it had four goals: to diminish America’s vulnerability to terrorism by securing the borders, minimizing the damage and speed the recovery from attacks that happen to occur, to develop technologies devices to detect terrorism and to share all intelligence gathered from all federal agencies (Haulley, 2006). These four

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated that it will apply risk management principles to homeland security operations and has stated “Ultimately, homeland security is about effectively managing risks to the Nation’s security” (DHS 2010, pg. 2). This is much easier said than done. There are many difficulties that must be sorted out. As with anything and everything, money comes into play, conflicts between national and local priorities, and societies opinion.

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.

Most significantly, Secretary Chertoff set forth how he would prioritize the Department 's focus, electing to concentrate first on threats "that pose catastrophic consequences" even if these targets are somewhat less vulnerable than other, but less consequential infrastructure. This analysis leads, for example, to the conclusion that we should focus preventive resources on areas of greater concern, like chemical, biological, or nuclear attack. And it leads as well to the conclusion that the Department of Homeland Security cannot and should not be expected to protect Americans from all possible risks.

When conducting a homeland security assessment being thorough is of utmost importance. Organizations are multifaceted and as such, require examination in many different areas of day-to-day operations. Homeland security concerns are seemingly innumerable, with new threats emerging almost daily. For an organization to be effectively prepared to deal with these threats, everyone from the highest leadership to entry level employees must be involved in the organization’s homeland security initiatives (Fisher, n.d.). This is true of both public sector entities such as law enforcement agencies, as well as private sector corporations.

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.

Since its founding in 1987, the Malcom Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence has been utilized by both the public and private sectors to compare themselves against the national quality standard of performance criteria (Fisher, 2001, p.2). This assessment tool covers the following areas, according to Fisher: leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resource focus, process management, business results and measurement and knowledge management (2004, p.2). How does this tie into homeland security? The definition of homeland security is “the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive to the national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur” (May,Jochim,Sapotniche, 2011, p.287). As stated previously, homeland security does not just mainly focus on terrorist attacks. It also takes into consideration such catastrophic events as Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans and left thousands without homes, belongings and employment to meet the most basic human needs which are food, clothing, and shelter. This is why one would conduct a homeland security assessment on their organization. The assessment would assist an organization in understanding their deficits and adjust accordingly. Additionally, the business could and should set goals for improvement with deadlines so they could be able to track their progress or lackthereof. If there is a lack of progress, barriers could be identified so that the goals could be adjusted, if need be, to overcome the barriers listed. One crucial comment that Dr. Fisher (2004) stated is that “there is no homeland security without a thriving

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.

Each category of the Baldrige Criteria contains an area to address during the Homeland Security Assessment. These areas to address outline specific issues that are critical in evaluating and scoring each category. The first category addressed is leadership. Leadership is essential for an effective and sustainable program implementation (Lieberson & O’Connor, 1972). Organizations look to their senior leaders for direction, inspiration, and meaning. This category is defined as, “how an organization’s senior leaders address values, directions, and performance expectations, focus on customers and other stakeholders, empowerment, innovation, and learning. Also examined is the organization’s governance and how the organization addresses its public