DHS's on terrorism

In your opinion, is DHS's current focusing on terrorism the right area to be focused on, or should more attention be paid to natural disaster management?

The current focus of DHS has been terrorism.  I strongly support this shift with a number of reasons. To start with, terrorism remains the most deadly fear that the whole world face. Therefore as the greatest enemy of United States, the department needs to be applauded for putting great concern on terrorism. Secondly, the issue of terrorism is hard to predict as compared to natural disaster issues. Therefore the unpredictability aspect of terrorism makes it very necessary for the department of homeland security to exert great pressure to fight it.  Terrorism calls for daily and intensive measures as compared to natural disasters. As a superpower, United States has a legacy to prevent. United States cannot easily lose this legacy through natural disaster as compared to terrorism. Therefore an enemy who challenges superiority must be handled with all efforts in order to make other things work. As a superpower also America has a responsibility to ensure terrorism is fought in the world (White, 2014). Terrorism also poses economic threats to America. Inability to shift a lot of efforts on terrorism will end up destroying American riches through terrorism as well as destruction of US partners and allies who are sources of supply as well as markets for America. Therefore DHS must fight terrorism to the last minute because it posses not only social threat but also greatest economic threat which United States hold as a super power. Natural disasters do not promote enmity among different sects of people while terrorism has relationship destruction as main agenda. Therefore , the fact that terrorism aims at creating bad relationship among people  leading to other social , political as well as  economical problems, the DHS is right to have more focus on it as compared to natural disasters. Its focus on terrorism prevents escalation of human-caused pain to the innocent people. Increased radicalization in the world also means that terrorists are among us. The department is therefore left with no option to daily monitor not only foreigners, but also the American terrorism fundamentalists. From this point of view, the department is right to put great concern to the fight against terrorism. The other point is that human intimidations are easily preventable by coercive as well as non coercive means. Natural disasters cannot be prevented to occur but terrorism can be prevented. For instance the tsunami disasters cannot be prevented. Alerting people through meteorological means and provision of support is enough. On the contrary, terrorism can be prevented. Therefore since terrorism is happening daily, it is something good for DHS to have great focus in fighting it (Viotti, Opheim & Bowen, 2008).

Define Mitigation and Preparedness. Compare and contrast the ideas of each, and give examples to highlight your statements

Mitigation is the process of eliminating or reducing the magnitude, frequency or the severity of exposure to risks (Sahni, 2001). It is also minimizing potential impacts of threats or warnings.

 preparedness on the other hand is  a process which ensures that an organization complies with  preventive measures or initiate a state of readiness  for purposes of  containing the effects of  forecasted adverse event  in order to minimize  injuries, loss of life as well as property damage (Gowan,  Sloan & Kirk,2015).  The activities involved in preparedness may include having organized and trained people, law enforcement personnel, response plan, regular training, drilling as well s training for response skills as well as coordination.

Both preparedness and mitigation are designed to assist people as well as   communities have better outcomes in emergencies and disasters. For instance preparedness through early warnings can advice people to move away from disaster suspected area while mitigation can involve evacuating people form a disaster stricken area. Therefore they work together to promote well being of people in relation o disasters. Both mitigation and preparedness success relies on proper planning. Inability for proper strategies to carry out the two process leads to failure. For instance inability to give proper early warning and inability to communicate well during disaster prevents the whole process of disaster management. Form some perspective; mitigation involves preparedness while at the same time preparedness involves mitigation. For instance installing tonado shelter is both mitigation as well as preparedness. Therefore the two processes work hand in hand to make people safe.

One of the differences between the two is that while preparedness is done before the disaster, while mitigation only comes in after a disaster has occurred. Therefore we only have victims in mitigation. On funding, preparedness gets funded prior a disaster occurrence while mitigation funds are always made available after disaster event in a locality. Preparedness  remains a  continuous cycle involving  planning,, training,  organizing equipping, evaluation, improvement and evaluation activities for  effective coordination  as well as  enhancing  capabilities to prevent, protect , respond , recover  as well as  mitigate against  disasters like terrorism or tsunami. On contrary, mitigation is not a continuous process. Mitigation prevents hazards against developing to disasters. Mitigation reduces effects of disasters after they occur. The mitigation phase differs from preparedness because it focuses on long-term measures to reduce or eliminate risk.

References

Gowan, M. E., Sloan, J. A., & Kirk, R. C. (2015): Prepared for what? addressing the disaster readiness gap beyond preparedness for survival. BMC Public Health, 151-5. Doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2440-8

Sahni, P. (2001): Disaster mitigation: Experiences and reflections. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.

Viotti, P. R., Opheim, M. A., & Bowen, N. (2008): Terrorism and homeland security: Thinking strategically about policy. Boca Raton: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group.

White, J. R. (2014): Terrorism and homeland security.

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