NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR HOMELAND SECURITY

National Strategy for Homeland Security



National Strategy for Homeland Security

Introduction

Homeland security is the term refers to the security efforts to protect United States of America against terrorist activities. It is a national effort to keep terrorist attacks away from within the US boundaries, top reduces United States vulnerability to terrorism and minimizing the damage of the attacks (Carafano & Sauter 2005). This paper is an account of the National Strategy for Homeland Security of United States. It highlights the background and history of the security policies within the nation. A brief account of the scope and the implementation strategy is also mentioned. It discusses the purpose and the ways through which the nation's security is protected by the federal and private agencies.

Discussion

The term homeland security arose by a reorganization of several US government agencies in 2003. The homeland security was incepted by the national research council, which proposed the establishment of an institution in order to gain access to the crucial capabilities which will ensure an informed decision making following any incident. The homeland security act of 2002 called for the creation of the department of the homeland security to develop a federally funded research and development centre. The operations of the institute started in June 2004. Since its inception, the institute finished about 300 tasks by providing support to every individual staff function within the framework of DHS (Morgan 2003). The institute supported the homeland security requirements of the defence, education and interior department

The concept of homeland security is new to many Americans. The idea of looking to the local and state agencies for national protection takes one back to the earliest days of the nations' history. The idea that the United States need defense was first suggested in 1949. A panel of experts completed a review of biological weapons that may bring harm to the nation's sovereignty, and reported the need of home defense. It called for the federal government and private agencies' efforts. This term was next mentioned in 1997. Following the concerns that the department of defense might not be quick enough to re design itself to the new threats, the congress mandated an internal “Quadrennial Defense Review" of military forces, strategy, and priorities. It was concluded that a separate department will foresee the defense and safeguard needs of the United States, which later took the form of homeland security ...