State of National Resilience: An Element of Homeland Security
Instructions
You are the newly appointed President’s Homeland Security Advisor for a new administration. You have spent the past 15 years as a senior non- political member ( Senior Executive Service) of the Department of Homeland Security. Write a White Paper that assesses the state of national resilience as an element of homeland security. What strategies are in place, where do you believe the gaps are, and how should they be addressed? Your paper can focus on specific element if desired such transportation, banking, energy, and even the impact of COVID on national resilience.
Technical Requirements
. Your paper must be at a minimum of 3-5 pages ( the title and Reference pages do not count towards the minimum limit).
. Scholarly and credible references should be used. A good rule of thumb is at least 2 scholarly sources per page of content.
. Type in Times New Roman, 12 point and double space.
. Students will follow the current APA Style as the sole citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework.
. Points will be deducted for the use of Wikipedia or encyclopedic type sources. It is highly advised to utilize books, peer-reviewed journals, articles, archived documents, etc.
. All submissions will be graded using the assignment rubrics.
( CO-1, CO-2, LO1, and LO2.1
Resilience and Homeland Security Mid-Term Assignment
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course Name and Number
Due Date
Resilience and Homeland Security Mid-Term Assignment
As the President’s Homeland Security advisor, recognizing the central role of this department in averting complex domestic and external threats facing the United States is critical. Its continued success in this duty demonstrates the unwavering resilience to overcome the ever-changing hazards threatening the stability and existence of essential infrastructures, especially energy. Linkov and Trump (2019) define resilience as the ability to anticipate or cope with disruptive circumstances or events and respond to the consequences while maintaining critical structure and functions. This concept has raised significant attention at the governance level, demanding all authorities, including Homeland Security, to consider resilience while overseeing diverse infrastructural sectors (JasiЕ«nas et al., 2021). Such an aspect would determine their ability to withstand climate change-related pressures, cyberattacks, and terrorist threats. Thus, investigating the energy sector’s national resilience highlights protective strategies, identifies gaps, and recommends appropriate measures.
The United States has made tremendous progress in integrating resilience within its governing authorities and departments for critical infrastructure protection. Fisher et al. (2018) indicate that the country recognizes the ever-present hazards threatening the energy infrastructure, strengthening its security against potential interferences. As a result, Homeland Security has gradually implemented many strategies since 1989, developing elaborate plans and procedures, system hardening, and eradicating redundancies. Such efforts led to improvements against physical security, terrorism, cyber threats, and other hazards in diverse capacities (Fisher et al., 2018). These tactics include executive orders supporting similar initiatives dating back to William Clinton’s one signed in 1996. Thus, the U.S. government has significantly improved the security of critical infrastructure.
Homeland Security also leverages the Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) to illustrate the achievements of resilience in critical areas. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (2021) considers RRAP an ongoing voluntary initiative whose primary objective is determining the risk management processes. It represents a coordinated infrastructural regional analysis that assists stakeholders in routinely solving resilience-related challenges and averting associated consequences. Fisher et al. (2018) note that this approach has effectively maintained appropriate security levels that lead to the protection of critical sectors such as the energy infrastructure. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (2021) agrees that RRAP’s efforts have kept Homeland Security alert through timely planning, preparedness, and coordination. Thus, it advances the central elements of resilience.
Even with the existing strategies, this government should recognize that gaps persist because the frequency of attacks on the energy sector has skyrocketed. The National Conference of State Legislatures (2023) reports that in 2022, physical incidents rose by up to 70%, highlighting the ease of activities such as theft, vandalism, and trespassing. Such an aspect questions the aspect of anticipating, which is critical in resilience. It emphasizes the need for the authorities to re-strategize their intervention strategies because such an increase in disruption highlights vulnerability. Krause et al. (2021) also flag the increasing cases of cybersecurity issues affecting the grid lines as an indication of gaps in national resilience. In the last decade, the United States has suffered numerous power interruptions from attack vectors through third-party exploits, insi...