Homeland Security Management Management Essay Papper (Essay Sample)

Homeland Security Management
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Homeland Security Management
Question 1: Threats and Vulnerabilities in the Food and Agriculture (FA) Sector
Food and agriculture is the essential factor in ensuring improved public health and welfare of people, being the driving force to achieving better economic outcomes. However, specific threats prevent the world form achieving its global objective of ensuring global food security.
The first threat is climatic changes. Erratic climatic conditions are expected to increase with the world population estimated to have increased by 3 billion by the year 2050, and it can have a negative impact on the agricultural sector, limiting food production (Gitz et al., 2016). Changes in climatic conditions exert increased pressure on agricultural resources, and changes in rainfall patterns affect crop yields.
There is also the issue of genetic engineering. Despite genetically modified crops having better yield and being better equipped to resist pests and extreme weather conditions, there are significant ethical and health safety issues needing to be considered. These human-made interventions through genetic modification can have unforeseen effects and have negative effects on the agriculture sector.
With these issues, the International Adulteration for implementation of the Food and Safety Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA) should recall its definition of “Food Defense” to include the impact of climatic conditions and genetic engineering on the food and agriculture industry (Zhang, & Seale, 2017). The act should address the importance of working towards mitigating these challenges by outlining key stakeholder roles and responsibilities. The achievement of food security requires the collective efforts of both the private and public sectors. Equally, the government should come up with a strategy, outlining the measure to take to help preserve the food and agriculture industry and develop policies aimed at reducing pollution and encouraging sustainable practices.
Question 2: Cybersecurity Triad
A cybersecurity triad is a defensive measure aimed at protecting information of organizations through the use of technologies, policies and processes, and training against malicious external attack. As more people and organizations shift to utilizing the internet in most of their activities, cybersecurity has become a vital issue. The previous governmental administrations required that the issue of cybersecurity be countered by the establishment of an effective national policy to help protect and preserve electronic data from access by malicious third parties. However, there have not been effective measures developed to help in tackling the issue.
A workable policy, addressing the concept of cybersecurity and outlining the specific matters, is daunting. With the available systems and strategies, the focus is still narrow, and implementation is slow. However, current cybersecurity documents drafted by the government reveal a promising step toward the establishment of a comprehensive policy on the issue of cybersecurity. Harknett and Stever (2011) argued that a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy depended on three essential matters. These are better relationships among government agencies, enhanced coordination amongst the public and private sector, and effectively engaging citizens to acknowledge that cybersecurity is a collective task. The government, being the weak link in the fight against cyber threats, must use a coordinated approach in their policy development by allowing the contribution of all parties if all the three legs of the triad are to be observed. The government should enhance inter-agency ties in sharing information on cybersecurity threats, outline measures the private sector should take to prevent itself from cybersecurity and educate the public on the need for cybersecurity effectively.
Question 3: National Security
Close to two decades after the 9/11 attack, the American government is still cautious of protecting the nation from both internal and external aggression. The debate on the security threats is always a topic of controversy and countering terrorism, having once again become the topmost priority for the American government. The United States defense is well equipped with both infrastructure and personnel to assess and counter the imminent threat with the enhanced tactics by terrorist groups from using suicide bombers to the use of biological weapons.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, about a sixth of the United States' national budget goes towards the enhancement of national defense (Crawford, 2019). The nation has committed enormous resources to enhance national security and help to neutralize terrorist attacks. Moreover, the homeland security sector has advanced technology, foreseeing the possibility of attacks sooner than they occur, making it easier to mitigate them. I believe the country is effectively prepared to tackle the issue of terrorism and enhance national security.
The current pandemic has highlighted severe deficiencies in the government in countering a threat before it occurs (Bilmes, 2020). The government knew earlier of the existence of a severe threat, causing harm to the US citizens but failed to observe strict measures in countering the threat. Immigration security was relaxed, and travelers’, having tested positive of the virus, still managed to penetrate the American borders. This is a significant risk in security as the country could be vulnerable to biological threats similar to the coronavirus. To address these deficiencies, specialists should conduct enhanced scrutiny and implement stricter policies, requiring all people moving into the US to undergo advanced medical tests.
Question 4: Challenges in achieving interoperable communications
The inability of emergency responders to effectively communicate with each other as required when responding to an emergency is an enduring problem, affecting most areas in the country. Poor communication among first responders in an emergency can lead to the loss of lives of the responders and the people they are trying to save. Despite the government trying to curb the issue of interoperability for more than a decade, there are still challenges it faces when addressing the issue of wireless communication. One of these challenges is identifying and defining the problem. The government and stakeholders involved have failed to consider that the question of interoperability is in the process of sharing information and the components of achieving the goal of communicating. The second challenge is in identifying interoperability performance goals and ensuring that they are flexible in addressing the disparities between different states and regions (Andreassen et al., 2020). The final challenge is defining the roles of each stakeholder in ensuring effective communication.
Advancement in technology has helped people to enhance the strides towards achieving effective communication though existing specific barriers, making the problem defy solutions. The main obstacle is the lack of effective collaboration and planning among intergovernmental agencies (Levy, & Prizzia, 2018). There needs to be an effective partnership, better leadership and synchronized planning among all parties involved to successfully fix interoperability issues in the country. Nonetheless, the government is showing promising signs of working towards countering the issue