Homeland Security Prioritization Plan, Research Paper Example

As the political, economic and social landscape of the world continues to change at an unprecedented rate, so also has the need to reevaluate the changing threats to our nation’s security.  Five years ago, Treverton (2005) addressed congress with an outline of emerging threats to national security.  In his address, he named nine categories of concern.  In the past few years, many of these concerns have been validated on the world stage.

Funding resources are currently more limited than in the past and it is important to dedicate them to addressing national security threats in order of priority.  The following recommendations are based not only on an evaluation of the world as it is today, but also on transitions in long-term global trends.

In order of priority, the three greatest threats to America’s national security involve digital communication, economic globalization and balance of power.  These categories of threat are not independent and mutually exclusive.  Rather, they combine to pose emerging challenges for the long-term safety and security of the United States.

Digital Communication

It is ironic that early advances in digital communication and internet technology were largely driven by the US military and the resulting omnipresence of digital communication has become its greatest challenge.  In terms of national security, the internet has changed everything.  Most of our nation’s physical and economic infrastructure is managed digitally.  In his paper presented to a conference of the Internet Society, Chapman (1998) quotes a federal report “calling for a vast increase in funding to protect eight key elements of U.S. infrastructure: electric power distribution, telecommunication, banking and finance, water, transportation, oil and gas storage and transportation, emergency services and government services.”

All of these components of the nation’s infrastructure rely heavily on computers and digital communication.  If any one (let alone several) of these components were to be compromised, the security of the country would be severely impacted.

Another consideration regarding digital communication relates to how intelligence is obtained and interpreted.  In the past, the “bad guys” were nations or organizations with hierarchical organization structures.  It was fairly clear who had the reliable information.  The problem was how to collect it.  In today’s world, the bad guys tend to operate within network structures.  It is harder to determine who has reliable intelligence information because there is so much information being transmitted.

To illustrate this problem, consider a basketball court being the world and a marble being a piece of vital intelligence information.  In the past, a bad guy would have to hide the marble in order to get it from one side of the court to the other.  The job of intelligence agencies was to find the hiding place.  Today, a bad guy simply rolls the marble across the floor using the internet.  Intelligence gathering now involves trying to identify the important marble from the 1,000,000 other marbles being rolled across the floor at the same time.  Methods of gathering intelligence information have become less important than identifying and validating specific information that is truly important.

As a nation, our first defensive priority should be to strengthen and protect our digital infrastructure and to develop better methods of intelligence gathering and validation.

Economic Globalization

Digital information sharing has also provided a growth medium for the expansion of economic globalization.  The phenomenon of globalization continues to expand at a remarkable rate.  While international trade and investment is both necessary and a vital component of America’s economic health, it also presents significant challenges.  One challenge is the erosion of the country’s long-term economic autonomy.  The last year that the US had a positive international trade balance was 1973.  Since that time, a trade deficit continued to grow until reaching a record high of 840 billion in 2008 (CIA, 2010).  Foreign investments in the US economy are worth about 2.4 trillion, or nearly 17% of GDP.

There is an old adage playing on the golden rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.”  Ultimately, money is power.  With nearly 1/5^th of the nation’s GDP being foreign investments, the US is in danger of becoming indentured to the political concerns of other nations.  Political autonomy can become eroded when financial interdependence becomes too significant.

Notwithstanding the combined European Union, the United States is still the world’s greatest economic force.  Protecting that status is paramount in maintaining national security.  The United States should heavily invest in strategies to reduce its trade deficit and minimize its reliance on foreign investments to bolster its GDP.  A strong, independent economy is perhaps even more important than a strong independent military in protecting a country’s national security.

Balance of Power

The third priority for maintaining national security involves our country’s response to the shifting balance of power throughout the world.  Fifty years ago, there were two dominant world powers.  The United States and Russia were the only two countries on the top of the hill.  Aside from each other, neither country worried much about threats from any other nation.  This is no longer the case.

In a report to the US Senate, acting director of Central Intelligence, Tenet (1997) described China as “major economic, political, and military power… determined to assert itself as the paramount East Asian power.”  He also stated that China should be “taken as a serious player, both regionally and globally.”  China’s growing power should play a significant part in considering priorities in US national security policies.  Not only is China growing as a potential political and military threat, but it also tops the list of US trade deficits.  At this time, China’s heavy investments in the US (and positive trade balance) might suggest that political or military aggression against our country would be counterproductive.  This may be true for the moment, but as the balance of power continues to shift, care should be taken to ensure that China never achieves the “upper hand.”

The other factor in considering balance of power is the proliferation of small countries that are threatening regional stability throughout the world.  Perhaps the biggest concerns are with North Korea, Iraq and Iran.  North Korea is struggling with a poor economy and shortages of food and other essentials basic to social stability.  Despite these problems, the nation’s leaders continue to pour a disproportionate percentage of their limited resources into increasing the size and weapon stockpiles of the military.

Iran and Iraq both present national security threats to the US.  Religious radicalism and anti-western sentiments have precipitated not only a regional war, but ongoing threats of violence on American soil.  Iran also has an active chemical and biological weapons program as does Libya and Syria.  Small countries with nuclear weapons include Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.

Fueled by networking capabilities supported by the internet, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among small countries, nation-states and anti-western organizations, an attack could come from anywhere.  It is no longer enough to keep a trained eye on the skis of Russia to detect an incoming ICBM.  When the possession of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons is coupled with the instability of these small countries, the threat becomes significant.

Maintaining stability in areas such as the Middle East is an almost insurmountable challenge.  Many of these countries continue to embrace ideologies held for centuries.  The likelihood of “democratizing” these people is nil.  They do not want to be westernized.  Unfortunately the historical swords of aggression have been replaced with anthrax and nuclear devices.

The United States should continue to pursue stabilization strategies for these countries while recognizing the need to maintain strong political alliances with other G8 nations.  The United States can no longer view the threats posed by the rising power of rogue nations and organizations from an independent perspective.  Because of economic interdependence, our nation must join forces with our allies to leverage the most political influence possible.

Conclusion

The world has become a complicated place.  A few centuries ago, a good strong wall was all that was needed to protect a community from hostile neighbors.  In the world today, threats to our nations security are numerous and profound.  The US needs to prioritize these threats in accordance with the immediacy of each threat and the potential damage that could be done by each.

Protecting our digital infrastructure is the most important because of the extent of damage that could be wrought by its compromise.  If every computer in the country were somehow to be destroyed, the country would regress to a subsistence economy in short order.  Computers run everything and they must be protected.

Since wealth is paramount in maintaining political and social power, this concern should be second on the list.  Economic globalization cannot be avoided, nor should it be.  Rather, the US must engage in international trade with goal-oriented intent.  If the country’s leaders allow other nations to obtain too much of an equity stake in our GDP, the very security of the nation could become at risk.

Managing the nation’s response to the rising power of other countries is the third priority.  An analogy could be made in terms of bees and bears at a picnic.  While enjoying the fruits of our labor at a picnic, it is relatively easy to keep an eye on a distant bear (like China).  We know the threat exists and are ever-vigilant regarding the bear’s activity.  Unstable small countries are like bee hives.  While we can easily see the hive, its operatives can appear quickly and out of nowhere.  A bee could inflict a painful, minor injury or could, in concert with other bees, end the picnic in short order.  To protect our nation and our way of life, it is imperative that we “keep tabs” on our adversaries as they grow stronger.

References

(Chapman G 199807 Natioal security and the internet) Chapman, G. (1998, July). National security and the internet. Paper presented at the Internet Society conference. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/21cp/isoc.htm

(CIA 2010 World factbook)CIA. (2010). World factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

(Tenet G 1997 Hearing on current and projected national security threats to the United States)Tenet, G. (1997). Hearing on current and projected national security threats to the United States (). Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency website: http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/dci_testimony_020597.html

(Treverton G 200522 Statement of Gregory F. Treverton)Treverton, G. (2005, February 2). Statement of Gregory F. Treverton. Paper presented at the United States House of Representatives. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/2005/RAND_CT234.pdf