Managing homeland security: deployment, vigilance and persistence.

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze provisions in the existing US laws and government directives for deployment, vigilance and persistence in managing homeland security. Design/methodology/approach – Within about a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US Congress passed various new laws and the executive branch of the government issued a series of directives to maintain domestic security. The approach of the study is to analyze the provisions of the laws and the directives with an aim of seeing how these will enable risk management considering that the resources are not unlimited. Findings – The existing laws and directives enhance the ability of the USA to manage domestic incidents by establishing a single, comprehensive national incident management system. However, the major impediment to risk management is currently the lack of ability to share critical information among federal, state, local, tribal, public and private sector organizations. The government and private sectors should work together to form partnerships and to improve the flow of information. To make risk management processes truly effective, people need to be educated on their advantages and disadvantages so that they can use such tools appropriately to help them prioritize and allocate resources. Originality/value – The paper advances research and strategies to manage homeland security and eliminate or at least reduce the risk of terrorist attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]