Homeland security

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the United States Cabinet department, see United States Department of Homeland Security.
For the NBC TV Movie starring Tom Skeritt, see Homeland Security (film).

Homeland security refers to governmental actions designed to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism, and also respond to natural disasters. The term became prominent in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks; it had been used only in limited policy circles prior to these attacks. Before this time, such action had been classified as civil defense.

Homeland security is officially defined as "a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur," according to the National Strategy for Homeland Security.[1] Because the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) it has responsibility for preparedness, response and recovery to natural disasters as well.

Homeland security is generally used to refer to the broad national effort by all levels of government--federal, state, local and tribal--to protect the territory of the United States from hazards both internal and external as well as the Department of Homeland Security itself.

Homeland security is also usually used to connote the civilian aspect of this effort; "homeland defense" refers to its military component, led chiefly by the US Northern Command headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.Founded in 1921

The scope of homeland security includes:

  • Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including volunteer medical, police, Emergency Management and fire personnel;
  • Domestic intelligence activities, largely today within the FBI;
  • Critical infrastructure protection;
  • Border security, including both land and maritime borders;
  • Transportation security, including aviation and maritime transportation;
  • Biodefense;
  • Detection of nuclear and radiological materials;
  • Research on next-generation security technologies.

Contents

[edit] Criticism

Homeland security both as a concept and in its application has been criticised on a number of counts, the more important of those being

  • There exist conflicts, real and perceived, between the Constitution, textually, and its historical interpretation, on one hand, and laws and procedures implemented as part of "Homeland Security", most importantly around the rights of citizens to privacy and protection from arbitrary searches and seizures.
  • There exist conflicts between bodies of international law, both ratified by the United States and not, and ideas, procedures and actions covered under the broad umbrella of "Homeland Security". Most important among these
    • The notion of "unlawful combatant". The United States Government has attempted to create a new notion that would somehow extract individuals captured by a military force from under the protection of the Geneva Convention. While the United States have never formally become a party to the Geneva Convention, most international law is squarely based on it, and argument can been brought that by benefiting from the workings of international law, the US Government is vicariously bound by the documents on which that law rests.
    • Undercover action of agents of the US Government in foreign, sovereign countries, whether with or without the knowledge of the respective foreign governments poses serious legal problems, especially in countries that practice a separation of legal and administrative systems. Ocasionally such agents are held to appear before courts, a situation which the US Government prefers to not conceive, mostly because it has no theoretical solution, although in practice a political solution can sometimes be achieved.
  • While the costs of "Homeland Security" can be estimated with some accuracy, it is inherently impossible to gauge the benefits incurred. There are those who argue that the entire effort is misplaced and mislead, and has no positive effect whatsoever. It is certainly true that the effort has no demonstrable positive effect, but it can be argued that it necessarily would not, by its nature. The point is sometimes carried further, considering "Homeland Security" a form of security circus, not directed at any positive results, but merely at giving the population the impression that work is being done, on the social engineering view that such display of work will have a calming effect through false induction, "work is being done so positive results are being obtained". It can be argued such calming effect is in fact a positive result, being a natural antagonism of terror, which is presumably the motive of terrorists.


[edit] In the United States

In the United States, the concept of "homeland security" extends and recombines responsibilities of much of the executive branch, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the United States Coast Guard, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the former U.S. Customs Service, the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The George W. Bush administration has consolidated many of these activities under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a new cabinet department established as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department, and other agencies such as the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services play a significant role in certain aspects of homeland security. Homeland security is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council, currently headed by Frances Townsend.

[edit] Outside the United States

Other nations around the world have also reorganized government activities consistent with homeland security. For example, in 2003 Canada created a Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness led by Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. Many European nations' homeland security efforts are led by their interior ministries, and they are increasingly coordinating their homeland security activities at the European Commission. The Labor Party in Australia has called for the creation of an Australian Department of Homeland Security, but the Liberal Party-led government has opposed this move.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../h/o/m/Homeland_security.html"
In other languages