Homeland Security Watch

Comment by William R. Cumming

April 13, 2010 @ 3:38 am

Interesting post and agree with much of what is stated.

The listing is of interest and repeated here of major inputs to future developments in EM:
U.S. Economic Strength
Climate Change
Rapid Technological Change
Demographics
Terrorism and Transnational Crime
Proliferation of WMD
Natural Resource Scarcity and Competition
Pandemic
Weak/Failed States and Ungoverned Spaces
Rise of New Powers/Weakening of U.S.

If these are in fact the areas of concern that will guide the future of FEMA I can state with absolute certainty that FEMA is out of business again with the next Republican administration. Why do I reach this conclusion?

First because FEMA is an administrative and grant making agency primarily. It has little or no technical ability, or desire to conduct research or integrate research findings into its agenda, or willingness to learn new tricks. It employs almost no meterologists, climatologists, seismologists, health physicists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, geologists, and since its formation in 1979 has lost 95% of its PhD strength. Nor does it utilize the NAS or NRC (National Research Council not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) very well. And it has almost no R&D or research staff. Yet the needs for all of the above are enormus. What it does have is a relatively large and deep political cadre. This distinction is discussed to some degree in an article of Richard Sylves and myself in the inaugral issue of the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in 2004. It also has almost no ability to work with DOD and the Armed Forces and National Guard in an effective manner and with that other 800 lb Gorilla of law enforcement the Department of Justice. That said what are my top 10 issues impact emergency management in next two decades.
1. The crisis in federalism, with no consensus of state roles in administration of civil government activities. Federal funding of all state activities has now passed the 50% mark and is climbing steadily. The pay as you go and reliance on property taxes to finance state governmental activity, including betting on constantantly rising real property tax take has proven a fundamental flaw in the states ability to determine their activities. Remember almost 50 million STATE and LOCAL employees and contractors are now permanent claimants on the resources of the Nation. This number was less than 5 million even for public safety being included in 1940.
2. The failure of the STATES to develop effective mitigation strategies with the result that federal disaster outlays largely subsidize state and local negligence.
3. The failure of the STATES to reduce the number of Local governemental units to those that can tax and those that can sue or be sued. The others are meaningless political giveaways to some political group like land developers or another.
4. The failure of the FIRE SERVICE to provide the cadre for EM activities in its downtime from fighting fires. Hey the “We fight fires” and are “Heroes” is obsolete in the face of decline in fire statistics as to losses and numbers of events. The Fire Service has largely let the EMT and HAZMATS response functions slide away from them.
5. The failure of the STATES to develop commonality in their EM structure and thereby making efforts such as EMAC more effective.

Okay why the focus on the states and locals above–because they are EM and its future. But hey let’s not leave out the Federal government and it could help the states immediately by fully federalizing and operating medicaid and unemployment insurance and payments under those systems. Both are bankrupting the states and forcing EM cutbacks.

Okay let’s go to the FEDS and the future of EM at the federal level.
1. The failure of Congress and the Executive Branch to reorganize the Stafford Act so that it can more effectively accomplish its purposes. Does this mean new legislation? In many cases not. Just make clear where the federal government is offering technical assistance, like mitigation, or finicial assistance, other types of assistance like case management or debris removal contracting or whatever. And the Stafford Act needs to clearly address the catastrophic category of events. And Congression reorganization must occur to make EM and even HS efforts more rationale.
2. The feds need to avoid the militarization of EM and make sure that the role of the NG and Reserves is clearly understood by STATE and LOCAL civil govermental units. This could even be a course or courses in the EM curricula. The AF is now seizing on EM as a future growth industry having picked up the vibes the STATES are failing and the military may be tasked as more efficient and effective in disasters. The NG would also like to stay home.
3. NORTHCOM should be headed by a NG four-star. If not the continuing battle for roles based largely on personal views and misunderstanding of our democracy (actually a Republic) by those running NORTHCOM will continue.
4. The FEDS need to train most of the Western Hemisphere in EM as a civil function, just as it has done for tax systems and their enforcement, military assistance, etc.
5. The VP of the US needs to be a grownup that stops asking daily the health of the President and made by STATUTE the principal Civil Crisis Manager and senior EM person in the Federal government.

What you say? These are long term things impacting on EM? Yes because they represent unresolved conflicts, wasted time and wasted effort that are already driving EM into oblivion. And the factors in the post don’t have a chance of allowing FEMA to be predictive, not just a reactive federal agency wherein you are only as good as your performance in the last disaster.

Hey good luck addressing the list in futuro if my list is not addressed. But of course I could be wrong as always.

Comment by William R. Cumming

April 13, 2010 @ 7:01 am

Probably should have mentioned that large scale events are what impact EM and HS in the US. Why? The culture of EM and HS IMO!

If I was to add a single longterm factor to the list in the post I would probably add the impact of long-term international MIGRATION caused by many things. What is interesting is that it turns out the Deputy Secretary would be a great person to be involved in this policy analysis given her background and work at the UN before DHS.

Comment by Claire B. Rubin

April 13, 2010 @ 7:39 am

Who are the participants in the Strategic Planning endeavor?

As usual, the DHS website for which you listed a URL is not informative about the office and its mission.

Comment by Dan O'Connor

April 13, 2010 @ 10:11 am

Thanks Chris and Excellent POV Mr. Cumming.

Today’s current events are tomorrows trends. If one were to do study the current events and do some trend analysis and perhaps push back from trying to policize the future we’d see the need for capability in lieu of policy.

There are no advanced techniques, but advanced applications of the fundamentals. So it is my estimation that instead of procuring more make believe money and putting more onerous laws on the books, we should become highly, highly proficient at mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. So to expound on the catch phrase;

Until we have a fundamental mastery of the skill set of the aforementioned, we’re simply spinning our wheels. There is a required balance to rules and capability. Currently, idealism and ideology are running our homeland security policies as well as our emergency management systems. The expectation placed on first and second responders is unrealistic.

The pragmatic, non PC, “keeping it real” voice is squelched by the rhetoric.

All is grist for the mill. We have the data to have a high quality probability matrix of most to least likely incidents and threats. Once we identify the minimum baseline response to the these threats, we have a real degree of an all hazards approach. Keep in mind that all incidents, no matter how bizarre or unique create disruption, casualties, and needs. It is within this definition that our future lies.

Want to prepare for the future? Worry about the present. There is no “complete knowledge” and therefore waiting for such is folly. We know about systems degradation, infrastructure lifespans, and life sustainment requirements. Anything planned today is obsolete tomorrow, so instead of constantly trying to see the future, prepare for it. Vision is different than predictability.

This is a leadership issue, not a policy issue. My bias on this is strong and unyielding;

I think the Marine Corps makes the best leaders. Why? They set high expectations, demand more, and have a culture of do more with less. That fact is proven by the USMC getting less than 3.5-4% of the annual DoD budget. More so, they believe themselves to be better and are uninhibited by challenge… The relevance? We must cultivate, exploit, and reward these type of leaders for our future… they are adaptable, nimble, smart, and not constrained by perceived limitations.

How you build your leaders is more important that how you task them.

I do not know this answer so it’s a bit rhetorical;
How do we build homeland security leaders? What do homeland security leaders read? What do they talk about? How do they prepare? What do they study? Where is the Homeland Security “war college“? What is the balance of theorists and practitioners? How do they recruit? How do they recognize talent and grow responsible, aggressive, and highly capable leaders?

This is a LEADERSHIP question….The future belongs to tomorrow’s leaders… how will we prepare, equip, train, and exploit them? Do we want specialists or generalists? Is creativity and imagination more important than grant writing acumen? Do they cross pollinate? Do they tolerate friction and maverick ideas well? How much time do they need?

Am I oversimplifying or keeping to my own maxim; there are no advanced techniques but advance applications of fundamentals. Homeland Security issues and the future require an organization that is creative, cultured in “can-do” and execution, and organizationally “one”.

There is so much that can be accomplished today. Why hasn’t there been a task force of EPA, DHS, and the National labs figured out how recycling can prepare coastal homes and roadways for weather? We have an overabundance of plastic; use it… green buildings, environmental consideration, and energy conservation can be met with utilizing this overabundant resource. Does such an organizational construct exist? We need more “why” and can do” instead of “can’t and don’t”.

Today is where preparation begins. While the future is unknown, there are some steps we can take to build capability that adapts and displays resilience in any number of scenarios.

Thank you for the post.

Comment by Desert Dweller

April 13, 2010 @ 11:48 am

The DHS/FEMA relationship continues to blend and blur the lines between emergency management and homeland security. The question of what is homeland security is still relevant to some and contributes to the problematic association between the two. I believe a better question to answer is, what isn’t homeland security? I suggest that it isn’t counterterrorism. If emergency management is homeland security, or vice versa, then counterterrorism must stand alone as a mission and a discipline. Consequence management is self serving if it limits or reduces prevention efforts, which can occur when it is brought under the umbrella of all-hazards. Diluting the emphasis necessary to defeat surprise is dangerous. It is also why the DHS/FEMA relationship should be scrutinized when it comes to this practice. The marriage of these two no doubt contributes to initiatives such as this and continually muddying the water.

Comment by William R. Cumming

April 13, 2010 @ 11:53 am

Thanks for your post also DAN! General Shinsheki now VA Secretary in his retirement speech said that what the military needed and was short of were leaders, not commanders and he then skillfully articulated the difference. Glad he is tended to those who served as did my father for 25 years at VA. I am glad that General Shinsheki was allowed to stay in the Army despite a severe wound by a pungi stake in RVN.

Comment by Dan O'Connor

April 13, 2010 @ 1:42 pm

Desert Dweller’

I often pose that question to Chris; What is and therefore what is not homeland security… perhaps we need a Dept of Offense and Dept of Defense…With a Dept of Special teams…Of course I am being facetious, but currently our current structures and “enteprises” are locked in place creating large gaps and response inequities. Excellent POV.

DanO

Comment by Philip J. Palin

April 13, 2010 @ 2:55 pm

Waaay back in 2008, the National Intelligence Council released its report “Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed.” Many of the report’s headlines coincide with the issues highlighted above. The full report is available at http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html

The 15-20 year horizon that is to be the focus of the FEMA effort is best for staking out a few (very few)aspects of strategic context… and for stimulating the imagination.

Once some shared sense of probability and possibility is carved out, the biggest issue with the future is what to do about it today and tomorrow and the day after.

Combining the urgency of the now with the potentiality of the future is where the value of futures thinking is demonstrated (or not). Where are you (or FEMA) going to place your bets? How committed are you (or FEMA) to the bets? What are you (or FEMA) going to stop doing today in order to create the future?

To create the future, we make choices… today, tomorrow, and the day after.

Comment by Joe Citizen

April 14, 2010 @ 5:38 am

The reality, the void in leadership and governing of our beloved Republic is evident from a grid-locked Congress to FEMA to the Executive Branch to the highest Court allowing such broad interpretation of our Constitution.

We are a nation so vulnerable, so unaware of the evil which besieges us and to those who seek our demise, you see our own consternation from within and our weakness in our ability to muster the Will to really address the weaknesses such as FEMA, our $12trillion in debt, open borders, even our vulnerable electric grid so whether Republican or Democrat, We are a bankrupt country with neither the vision or the inherent strength to utilize our innovativeness, our resiliency to overcome the borrowing mentality, the arrogance in self-agenda.

Our “entusted” professional politicians failed with Katrina, failed in Haiti and again yesterday, like in the skies over New York with Air Force One scaring the wits out of New Yorkers flesing their buildings, another sightseeing ride this time in a helicopter over Haiti yesterday while the good people of Haiti remain in the mud!

America is weak in backbone not in its most charitable people who work so hard to make ends meet, but in those who pledge in oath to serve the public, to vote as its constituents prefer.

Mr. Cumming is right on target as he most always is and unfortunately Washington is not listening and implementing many of his useful suggestions. As chatter and tensions in the Middle East mount in direct result of this Administration’s – narrow perspectives – and actions giving encouragement to the enemy not only in telling those who much prefer in cutting our heads off that hey, even if you attack us and cripple us, don’t worry, I as Commander-in-Chief will not order a retaliation using nuclear capacity…..

….since when do we advise our adversaries of our strategies, our military “options” – what practicality is in such outragious statement, where are the Joint Chiefs of Staff in all this – with at least my considering this as an act of treason in disregard of the oath the President and Commander-in-Chief took in pledge to uphold the security of this nation….

It is quite apparent that whether FEMA, HLS, so on and so forth throughout our government from the very top downwards mostly comprised of – lawyers – with a very evident lack of scientists, engineers and the vision in continuing to gain benefits from space exploration and giving our adversaries control of the skies, we have become a nation in great debt, a third world country and less.

We prefer keeping the social issues at the height of discussion, reiterating how badly the slave was treated..we know all about it…we read history…we are in the 21st century and we cannot get out of our way as the lawyers and the sociologists pervade the fabric of the nation rather than scientists and engineers who have the foresight, the innovation, the imagination are lost to those who prefer to dwell in the past.

The fact is that FEMA and DHS and so many others whether at the local level, state or national whether in education or other, we cannot compete and we cannot take care of our people as our spend and spend and lack of integrity and oops that word again, transparency Hank Paulson, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi et al, well, taxes and fees, taxes and fees, yet don’t fret, for it will not be too long before Middle East tensions and the shock and awe over East Jerusalem make it quite apparent that any US President who snubs the Prime Minister of Israel in the manner in which was so noted in Wshington last week and conveying military strategy and taking any “option” off the table in retaliation strategy we may or may Not employ, well, we have lost and there is little hope with lawyers and community organizers at the helm of a ship, not sinking, but sunk as the coffers of the life rafts and the bankers at the steering shaft drift far away taking the gold and leaving us the “fiat” federal reserve notes and the IOU’s which this county will never repay simply because by 2015, you Mr. President as I forewarned and others too, will have placed such hugh burden on debt that we will ot even be able to meet our interst payments, never midn worrying about a defunct FEMA, HLS and other….

God Bless the DoD, the folks at NSA and others in the intelligence community, truly dedicated Americans who do their utmost daily to address cyber attack and other, however until we see the gold medal be conveyed to not folks like Al Gore and his busienss interests and central banker buddies, but scientists and engineers who can use imagination, creativeness and their astute acumen in commitment to diligence, the clock has already done its ticking and submerged, little time to recapture the Amwrican Dream not in its riches, but to create a Life whereby the individual is afforded Liberty, Freedom of Expression, the tools of individual creativeness to share all with others from within to shores far yonder!

Just as you cannot rely on the local school administration with its high salaries and top ended bureaucracies, nor the “professional politician” at the local, state and national level with all requiring term limits, during a time of emergency, it is not FEMA or HLS which will knock on the remnants of our belongings and ourselves, it will be the oursleves and our loved ones, neighbors as well and the word of God for greed and corruption, narrow perspectives from you Mr. President to those within the White House and throughout Congress, impressed with your credentials, incestuous in accolades of one another, yet merely a charade for we are bankrupt, let me reiterate, bankrupt $12trillion times and in the not-too-distant future, without manufacturing, no new jobs of any consequence, taxing the already destitute, the 24% or more of homeowners under water and so many others with so many more issues, well, God Bless America for we have from within, dealt the cards of greed and self-agenda depicting a country who live for today and unfortunately Not for tomorrow!

Christopher Tingus
PO Box 1612
Harwich, MA 02645
chris.tingus@gmail.com