Introduction
Due to the devastating terrorist attacks in the year 2001, it was declared by George. W. Bush that an office of Homeland Security and Defense should be created. Furthermore, the budget for homeland security was distributed among four main policies: weapons for mass destruction, emergency response and preparedness, information analysis, and transportation and border security. The United States government ensured that the Department of Homeland Security’s creation greatly realigned with its purpose. Thus, it might take longer years for its implementation to be fully achieved. This outline briefly explains the evolution of the Department of Homeland Security and Defense and highlights some of the challenges it is prone to encounter.
Challenges of homeland security and defense
Funding, defining roles, and transition
The Department of Homeland Security has faced the challenge of national strategy. Even though the agency tends to come up with ideas on protecting the homeland, it should be noted that their plan could be more specific. This is mainly because it lacks a concrete and clear strategy for its implementation. Furthermore, the Department needs to adequately define its roles and mission, thus making it hard to understand its relationship to the Department of Homeland Security. Another challenge that the Department of Homeland Security is prone to be faced with is the issue of time constraints (2022).
In as much as it might take over 5-10 years for the organization or implementation of DHS to be attained, it is worried that the transition time might lead to the duplication of these efforts (2023). Furthermore, implementing these efforts might also become impossible in the next 5-10 years due to misallocation of resources, poor monitoring efforts, and sloppy accounting regarding expenditures and allocation. Furthermore, more concerns have been laid forth regarding the creation and implementation of the Department of Homeland Security (2008).
This is from the fact that DHS creation might trigger forth a false sense when it comes to the public, thus making the public believe that the Department can offer 100 percent protection when it comes to terrorist attacks. To counter this kind of impression effectively, government officials in the United States have strived to point out DHS as an important part of homeland security. Nonetheless, it cannot be used alone to protect Americans (Mitchell & Pate, 2003). Furthermore, it is clear that DHS requires sufficient funding to foster its implementation, but it is currently the main challenge for the government of the United States.
Privacy concerns have also acted as a great threat to the implementation of DHS as the Department tends to greatly invade the privacy of the citizens in the United States. This is mainly because the data the DHS collects might include personal information like information from internet service providers and phone companies, thus raising extreme concerns. In order to address this challenge in the future, a privacy officer must be hired to ensure that all private information remains intact. Nevertheless, at this moment, the Department has yet to learn how the position will be filled; however, this will be sorted out in the coming five to ten years (Clark, 2023).
In conclusion, the implementation of DHS was mainly meant to foster coordination and further minimize redundancies within agencies for protecting the United States homeland. However, several challenges have certainly been witnessed, calling for something to be done to tackle these challenges. DHS must develop a system that will greatly help address these challenges.
References
Clark, J. (2023). Emerging Threats Are Shaping the Future of Homeland Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3553150/emerging-threats-are-shaping-future-of-homeland-defense/
Mitchell, J., & Pate, J. (2003). The Department of Homeland Security: Goals and Challenges. https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/homeland-security-goals-challenges/
(2008). Top Ten Challenges Facing the Next Secretary of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/hsac_dhs_top_10_challenges_report.pdf
(2022). Major Management and Performance Challenges Facing the Department of Homeland Security. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2022-11/OIG-23-01-Oct22.pdf
(2023). Risks and Threats for 2023: The Nation’s Homeland Security Leaders Speak. https://www.hstoday.us/featured/security-challenges-in-the-year-ahead-an-hstoday-expert-symposium/
(2024). Homeland Threat Assessment. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-09/23_0913_ia_23-333-ia_u_homeland-threat-assessment-2024_508C_V6_13Sep23.pdf
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