Homeland security is a defensive security measure towards protecting the United States in opposition to the action of terrorist (Carafano & Sauter, 2005, p.xiv). The word homeland security came into existence in 2003 as a result of the extensive structural alteration of various United States governing authority and administrative unit of government in the direction of forming the United States territorial and administrative division of Homeland Security after the September 11 occurrence, and possibly put into service in relation the departments activities.
Nevertheless, in the country, such house committees in the likes of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, and the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs look into the affairs of homeland security.
Consequently, in a country like the United States of America, the abstract or general idea of homeland security broadens and changes the duties of some government administrative unit, as well as the United States military reserves recruited by the states and equipped by the federal government (National guards), the autonomous agency of the United States government that presents a single point of responsibility for all federal emergency preparedness and mitigation and response activities (FEMA), military service responsible for the safety of maritime traffic in coastal waters (United States Coast Guard), United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Customs and Border Protection, the United States Secret Service, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Civil Air Patrol, and the Transportation Security Administration.
The erstwhile administration of President George W. Bush amalgamated most of these actions under the administrative governance of United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a new governmental department established because of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, many of the country’s homeland activity on security measure like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is not inclusive in the department of Homeland Security (Hulnick, 2004, p.3). Furthermore, other federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States (e.g., the Department of Defence and Department of Health and Human Services) take part in the important responsibilities in some characteristic to be considered about homeland security.
Additionally, the United States Homeland security is carried out at the White House by the Homeland Security Council.
Homeland security is formally and clearly characterized by the National Strategy for Homeland Security as “cooperative nationwide initiatives in preventing terrorist launched assault in the United States, cut down on America’s susceptibility to the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature, and reduce the occurrence of a change for the worse and recuperate from the occurrence of attacks”. Since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is made up of the independent agency that provides a single point of accountability for all federal emergency preparedness and mitigation and response activities, it is also responsible for vigilant attentiveness, response, and improvement to disasters in conformity with nature or the observable world.
The department of Homeland Security had been used only in some sets of governmental strategies but was given prior importance subsequent to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the country (Carafano & Sauter, 2005, p.4). Furthermore, Homeland security is generally used to indirectly express or state the non-military citizen’s characteristic of this series of actions toward ending terrorist attacks.
In line with this, the homeland security operates, control and has power over the preparedness and response of sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that requires immediate action for both terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
Reference List
Carafano, J. J., & Sauter, M. (2005). Homeland security: a complete guide to understanding, preventing, and surviving terrorism. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Hulnick, A. S. (2004). Keeping us safe: secret intelligence and homeland security. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.