Homeland Security: Overcoming Centralization, Complacency, and Politics - Research Paper Example

Homeland Security: Overcoming Centralization, Complacency, and Politics This article explores the concept of homeland security with reference to the facets including Centralization, Complacency and Politics. With the changing perspective of global scenario, the issue of overcoming centralization, complacency and politics within the domain of homeland security has emerged as a key concern of policy domain in the United States. It has been recognized that with the increasing threat of terrorism post 9/11 decentralization of homeland security has started to be determined as a key aspect to ensure steadfast security of the nation from external ever-looming threats. Even though, federal government support is not always prevalent in this regard. Complacency has also been increasingly considered as a bane for ensuring strong safety of the nation for homeland security and thus it must be strongly averted. Limiting the engrossment of politics and political forces is being considered as a key facet by the policymakers to ensure that homeland security is able to operate sovereignly and take up necessary decisions to the best interest of the nation. Consequently, the endeavor to overcome these key concerns or inhibitors has been identified as a key step for policymakers involved with homeland security in order to ensure stronger protection for the nation against ever-increasing global threats. Keywords: Homeland security, centralization, complacency, politics, terrorism. Research Article: Homeland Security: Overcoming Centralization, Complacency, and Politics Introduction Homeland security is a particular term, which denotes ensuring a homeland to be safe as well as secure and resilient in opposition to terrorism. The term specifically represents the approaches made towards safeguarding a nation against global terrorism in terms of adopting and implementing effective policies for protecting a homeland or a nation. It can be ascertained that several agencies of the US are compiled under this particular term that mainly encompass “United States Department of Homeland Security”, “United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security” and “Governmental Affairs and United States House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security” among others. The primary intention of homeland security is to safeguard the sovereignty and integrity of a nation at large (The Heritage Foundation, 2014). This particular coursework or article will focus on determining the concept of homeland security on the basis of the aspects including Centralisation, Complacency and Politics. It has been learnt that over the years, the country i.e. US has shown immense transformations especially in the domain of securing the nation prior to the issues of security that rose after the attack on September 11. Post this particular incident, the country has declared war against global terrorism in the process of which it has strengthened its security by a considerable extent. Correspondingly, this particular research will focus on gaining an insight with regards to the issues of overcoming centralisation, complacency and politics within the domain of homeland security (The Heritage Foundation, 2014). Overview of the Issue The issue, which will be explored in this particular discussion, primarily relates with centralisation, complacency, and politics in the domain of homeland security. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the factor of centralisation is regarded as one of the core aspects, which is related to homeland security or federalism. Decentralising homeland security has certainly enabled the concerned authorities to comprehend that states and local authorities are also capable and competent enough in safeguarding nations from any sort of external threat by utilising available resources. However, it is strongly believed that despite having certain powers of homeland securities and state agencies, they have little authority to stand against or comment in favor of the policies frame by the federal government. This aspect further discourages their actions to a greater extent altogether. This has been an important issue within the domain of homeland security. It has also been continuously argued that complacency must be withdrawn from the operations of homeland security. The countries must not depict complacencies in past within the domain of homeland security. Rather, it is considered that the approach must stay ahead from the activities of terrorism rather than keeping itself behind with a complacent approach. It is believed that the policies of federal government lack effectiveness with regards to the increasing activities of global terrorism. In this regard, the homeland security must remove complacency in its approach and emerge with diverse strategies based on the prevailing scenario (White, 2013). It has been argued that politics has been an integral part of security domain in the US. The intervention of political parties and agencies has certainly impacted the decision-making procedure of various defence agencies in the past. In order to enhance the efficacy of Homeland Security, it is important that utmost attention needs to be paid on the aspect of politics specifically in the domain of decision making. During the previous few years, the approach of homeland security has undergone through various constant interventions that majorly imbalanced the entire process of working of the security agencies. It is strongly believed that a country and its security policies will not be able to attain efficiency level owing to the interventions of political domain of the nation. It has been claimed that the issue concerning the wider prevalence of centralisation, complacency as well as politics in the domain of homeland security may hinder in the developmental pathway of the economies of a nation by a considerable extent (White, 2013). Hence, limiting the involvement of politics in Homeland Security can be duly considered as an important issue, which needs to be addressed as well as mitigated for reaping varied significant benefits and most vitally generating varied positive results. Research Question The primary focus of this particular research is to focus on gathering a better understanding about a current issue within the structure and functioning of Homeland Security. Likewise, the research question has been framed as: “What is the importance of overcoming centralization, complacency and politics within homeland security?” Hypotheses H0 (null hypothesis): Overcoming centralization, complacency and politics will ensure positive results in the operations of Homeland Security H1 (alternative hypothesis): Overcoming centralization, complacency and politics will not ensure better and efficient results relating to Homeland Security in the context of safeguarding any nation. Analysis of the Hypotheses based on Secondary Research It is believed that the activities perform by homeland security hold utmost prominence, as this remains highly involved in dealing with security related issues of a nation. However, as discussed earlier, there are several key issues that have been affecting the overall operations of the agencies falling under homeland security of the country. One of such issues includes the prevalence of centralisation, complacency as well as politics within the operations of homeland security. Notably, the centralized control format, which is currently prevailing within the operations of homeland security, affects the efficiency of the agencies operating under homeland security. With the centralised approach of controlling the operations of homeland security, lack of urgency can be witnessed to persist against terrorism and other threats. The format often obstructs homeland security to adopt and implement a strict approach towards terrorism, which is impacting the global world. It is often argued that rather than focusing on centralisation of the activities of homeland security, a coordinated approach is deemed to be effective (White, 2013). With a coordinated approach towards mitigating threats and other issues, it can be ascertained that the agencies falling under the approach of homeland security will be able to adopt rapid and flexible actions towards mitigating any sort of issue and threat posed against the nation. The lack of coordination within the operations of homeland security can be further justified with reference to the fact that certain top agencies of the country often become reluctant towards sharing or disclosing information to the agencies of homeland security, which further lengthens the operations and investigational activities. In the presence of a decentralised approach within the operations of homeland security, the agencies working or operating under the same would be able to adopt a more independent approach towards dealing with the threats of terrorism against the US. Thus, the importance of decentralisation or overcoming centralised within the work process of Homeland Security is indeed deemed to be quite crucial (Perrow, 2006). Similar to that of the aspect of centralisation in Homeland Security, complacency is also an important point of discussion. Notably, the policies and approaches of the federal government of the US have resemblance with the past approaches, policies and incidents witnessed by the nation. Complacency is deemed to be one of the major problems that have been obstructing proper operations of homeland security over the years. Complacency has been mainly seen in the thought process of the nations with regards to deal with terrorism and mitigate the same. It primarily obstructs active and continuous involvement of the concerned authorities towards dealing with the threats against the US. It is often been argued that in the current scenario, agencies operating within homeland security must possess a creative and open thinking while deciding on the measures to be taken to deal with terrorism and other global issues. With embracing advanced technologies and various means of conducting terrorism activities, policies that are made in alignment with complacency are prone to have failure in the contemporary settings. Complacency, within the operational approaches of homeland security, may often lead towards denial and apathy, which can negatively impact its overall operations (Bach & Kaufman, 2009). The prevailing issues within the domain of homeland security also include the existence of politics within the work process of the agencies. Notably, politics is often been regarded as an integral part of the operational activities perform by Homeland Security. Politicians and parties within the US have been continuously intervening in the work process of homeland security especially in the domain of decision making. Political influence over the activities of homeland security is seen to be adversely influencing its efficacy and independency level. It is worth mentioning that politics is as a major problem, which is hindering homeland security to work based on own norms and intelligence. A few of the major political problems that prevail within the operations of homeland security include the absence of effective oversight, the prevalence of Pork-Barrel Spending, existence of amnesty and the adoption of irrelevant measures among others. In similar to any other functions and department of the federal government, the homeland security is also deemed to be susceptible towards politics and political interventions within its operations. There exists lack of power of homeland security in the domain of decision making with regards to take measures for dealing with external threats and terrorism related activities against the US. This aspect further makes the approach dependent on politics and external agencies for their decision making and execution of activities. It is quite evident from past occurrences that with the prevalence of politics in the domain of security control of any particular region, expectations of effective policies and decision making is deemed to be highly uncertain (Morag, 2011). Hence, it is apparent that the existence of politics within the work process of the homeland security is indeed a major issue to have a discussion upon (The Heritage Foundation, 2014). From the overall discussion, it is clear that overcoming the aspects of complacency, centralisation and politics will certain result positively for homeland security especially with regards to the aspects concerning decision making and planning to deal with terrorism. Discussion of Hypothesis The hypotheses developed for this particular research study mainly targeted towards ascertaining the importance of overcoming the issue concerning centralisation, complacency and politics within the operations of homeland security. It has been quite apparent that all the above mentioned factors i.e. centralisation, complacency and politics have their integral presence in the operations perform by the security agencies in the US including homeland security. It is worth mentioning that these factors hinder the operations of the security agencies in the US one way or the other. Owing to this particular aspect, these factors are often regarded as the crucial aspects that tend to hinder the improvement of homeland security in the US (Woodward, 2011). Research conducted in this particular issue suggested that rather than focusing on developing new policies and norms towards dealing with global terrorism and other importance issues, the concerned authorities in the US need to focus more on understanding the challenges that are prevailing in the security agencies of the country in the current scenario. Contextually, the challenges facing by homeland security owing to centralisation, complacency and politics must be taken into concern in this regard. Identifiably, the different operations perform by the Homeland Security in the US mainly concentrate towards the operations and approaches of the federal government with little involvement of the local as well as state authorities. Identifiably, the local and state authorities are not provided with the opportunity to make their contribution towards the efforts of homeland security to deal with global terrorism and other issues that can threaten the country in future. This aspect of centralization within the approach of homeland security has further obstructed its operations to a particular limit. Hence, by allowing or involving the local and state authorities in dealing with terrorism and other issues through overcoming centralization, the efforts of homeland security can be benefitted by a larger extent altogether (Woodward, 2011). Complacency is also deemed to be one of the most vital problems, which is obstructing Homeland Security to perform its varied functions in an effective manner. Researches conducted in this particular context depicted that avoidance of complacency in the domain of operations of homeland security will certainly prove to be quite beneficial so that updated and accurate decisions can be taken. Specially mentioning, the authorities belonging to the US must not show reluctance towards making bold and effective decisions, rather considering past successes while making policies and taking decisions. Again, with the increase in the level of hazards of global terrorism, efficiency must be maintained or ensured in every domain of the operations of Homeland Security. Thus, it is quite apparent that overcoming the problem of complacency in homeland security will certainly yield improved and beneficial results to a greater extent altogether (Woodward, 2011). Again, researches have also suggested that overcoming politics in Homeland Security, which is one of the most widely recognised problems within the operations, can also prove to be beneficial in generating appropriate results. It is worth mentioning that with the presence or intervention of diverse minds while making any policy, the probable effectiveness of the same becomes highly vulnerable. Similarly, with the presence of politics within the domain of Homeland Security, the chances for generating positive results from the policies become highly uncertain. This aspect also depicted that in the absence of any sort of politics the operations of the Homeland Security will be smoothened to a greater extent (Woodward, 2011). In relation to the above context, it is quite clear that centralisation, complacency and politics are amongst the major problems that are exiting in the operations of Homeland Security in the US. Researches affirmed that overcoming these issues will certainly ensure positive results for Homeland Security and also its operations in long run. Hence, with consideration to these aspects, the null hypothesis framed above i.e. overcoming centralisation, complacency and politics will ensure better and efficient operations from the Homeland Security towards safeguarding the nation can be accepted (Woodward, 2011). Conclusion From the overall analysis of the findings, it is quite apparent that the US has been on a continuous verge to fight against global terrorism and other issues that have been threatening the nations including the US. In this regard, the role of homeland security of the US is deemed to be quite important. It includes several agencies that work together towards strengthening the security of the nation against any external threat. However, there are certain existing issues that are hindering the operations of the security agencies working under homeland security along with obstructing its improvement as a unit over the years. These problems mainly comprise the issue of centralisation, complacency and politics among others. The operations of homeland security are largely influenced by the aforementioned factors. Overcoming these issues will certainly prove to be beneficial for homeland security and its activities, further enhancing the overall security of the nations at large. These aspects can be related with the acceptance of hypothesis based on the acquired data. Hence, in conclusion, it is to be stated that overcoming the mentioned issues will not only make greater improvements within the activities perform by Homeland Security in the US, but will also make the nation to be capable enough in mitigating any sort of serious threat. References Bach, R., & Kaufman, D. (2009). A social infrastructure for hometown security: advancing the homeland security paradigm. Received from http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=5.2.2 Morag, N. (2011). Comparative homeland security: global lessons (Google eBook). US: John Wiley & Sons. Perrow, C. (2006). The disaster after 9/11: the department of homeland security and the intelligence reorganization. Retrieved from http://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=2.1.3 The Heritage Foundation. (2014). Homeland security 4.0: overcoming centralization, complacency and politics). Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/08/homeland-security-4-0-overcoming-centralization-complacency-and-politics The Heritage Foundation. (2014). Homeland security 4.0: overcoming centralization, complacency, and politics. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/08/homeland-security-4-0-overcoming-centralization-complacency-and-politics Woodward, C. (2011). Three obstacles to improved homeland security. Retrieved from http://www.onenewsnow.com/national-security/2011/09/02/three-obstacles-to-improved-homeland-security#.VIAysWSUf84 White, J. (2013). Terrorism and homeland security. US: Cengage Learning. Read More