DHSRefocusing DHS to Address Today’s Threats to the Homeland
DHS was created in 2003 to make sure that the United States does not again experience 9/11-like attack, in which nonmilitary means—four passenger aircraft— killed more Americans than died in the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The security challenges have changed since 2001. One example: As of August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was killing as many Americans as died on 9/11— every four days. In addition to pandemics, the long-term threat to U.S. infrastructure from climate and weather changes and the increasing non-kinetic actions by nation-state adversaries seeking to undermine U.S. power, “all point to the need for the United States to make another fundamental change in how the U.S. government defends the nation and keeps the American people safe,” the authors on a new report say.
The Atlantic Council has just released a report – Future of DHS Project: Key Findings and Recommendations – which calls for refocusing DHS so it can better and more effectively address the security challenges the United States is facing today.
The report’s authors, Thomas S. Warrick and Caitlin Durkovich, write:
The forward defense of the United States faces different challenges from those that US leaders faced in 1945, 1989, or even in 2016. A strong military, backed by a strong economy, a vibrant democracy, and US diplomacy, are all vitally necessary but are no longer sufficient.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003 to help ensure the United States never again experienced an attack like 9/11. Underlying that decision was the recognition that in 2001, the world had changed to the point where nonmilitary means—four passenger aircraft—could be used to kill more Americans than died in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It should focus US policymakers that, as of August 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was killing as many Americans as died on 9/11—every four days. The Covid-19 pandemic, the long-term threat to US infrastructure from climate and weather changes, and the increasing non-kinetic actions by nation-state adversaries in 2020 that seek to undermine US power, all point to the need for the United States to make another fundamental change in how the US government defends the nation and keeps the American people safe. The best solution available is to refocus the Department of Homeland Security and to fix DHS’s internal problems so it can lead the defense of the nation against nonmilitary threats.
The report’s main points:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to refocus its mission to lead the defense of the United States against major nonmilitary threats.
Infectious diseases, cyber threats from hostile nation-states, threats to election security, foreign disinformation, threats to critical infrastructure from climate change, vulnerabilities from new technologies, and growing white supremacism present serious risks to homeland security. Although DHS was founded in 2003 to focus on the threat from terrorism, today’s challenges demand more DHS leadership attention and resources, even as the department needs to meet all its other current missions. For DHS, nothing goes away.
U.S. rivals learned in the Gulf War not to challenge the United States on the battlefield. Instead, they have turned to attacks on democracy that stay just below the threshold of a U.S. military response. No other federal agency—not DOD, not DOJ—is equipped to defend against these threats.
COVID-19 in the last five months of 2020 is forecast to kill twenty-five times the number of Americans killed on 9/11, and will still be a major threat in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term threat to U.S. infrastructure from climate and weather changes, and the increasing non-kinetic actions by nation-state adversaries in 2020 that seek to undermine U.S. power, all point to the need for the United States to make another fundamental change in how the U.S. government defends the nation and keeps the American people safe.
DHS’s unique public-private partnerships should be modernized to effectively counter the threats of the 2020s.
While DHS may lead or direct specific operations, DHS’s chief responsibility is often to coordinate efforts of federal departments and agencies, in consultation with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments, nongovernmental organizations, private-sector partners, and the public, a partnership commonly referred to as the “homeland security enterprise.” DHS should not be viewed at the top of a pyramid directing downwards—if anything, the “pyramid” is inverted with DHS often in a supporting role or called upon to assist when partner resources are overwhelmed and they ask for federal assistance.
DHS is collectively the largest “retail” face of the federal government at the local level and needs to do more to take advantage of this sustained presence, which is often better attuned than Washington to the needs of local partners.
DHS must improve its morale and resolve its internal challenges–and is capable of doing both.
The solution to DHS’s problems is not to dismantle the department, because what DHS does, or should be doing, is vital to the security and safety of Americans and to national security broadly.
When large cabinet departments are ranked by overall morale, DHS has occupied last place in twelve out of thirteen Federal Employee Viewpoint Surveys (FEVS) done since 2003. Addressing the workplace issues that drive DHS’s low morale needs to be one of DHS’s top priorities. DHS has some remarkable success stories at the component level in turning around employee morale that need to be recognized, understood, and, where possible, replicated.
