Homeland Security And Federalism

Argues that the federal model of homeland security is failing, and promotes a model that restores power to the nation's governors and mayors and that will be less costly and more successful.

Security governance in the second decade of the 21st century is ill-serving the American people. Left uncorrected, civic life and national continuity will remain increasingly at risk. At stake well beyond our shores is the stability and future direction of an international political and economic system dependent on robust and continued U.S. engagement. Outdated hierarchical, industrial structures and processes configured in 1947 for the Cold War no longer provide for the security and resilience of the homeland. Security governance in this post-industrial, digital age of complex interdependencies must transform to anticipate and if necessary manage a range of cascading catastrophic effects, whether wrought by asymmetric adversaries or technological or natural disasters. Security structures and processes that perpetuate a 20th century, top-down, federal-centric governance model offer Americans no more than a single point-of-failure. The strategic environment has changed; the system has not. Changes in policy alone will not bring resolution. U.S. security governance today requires a means to begin the structural and process transformation into what this book calls Network Federalism. Charting the origins and development of borders-out security governance into and through the American Century, the book establishes how an expanding techno-industrial base enabled American hegemony. Turning to the homeland, it introduces a borders-in narrative—the convergence of the functional disciplines of emergency management, civil defense, resource mobilization and counterterrorism into what is now called homeland security. For both policymakers and students a seminal work in the yet-to-be-established homeland security canon, this book records the political dynamics behind the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing development of what is now called the Homeland Security Enterprise. The work makes the case that national security governance has heretofore been one-dimensional, involving horizontal interagency structures and processes at the Federal level. Yet homeland security in this federal republic has a second dimension that is vertical, intergovernmental, involving sovereign states and local governments whose personnel are not in the President’s chain of command. In the strategic environment of the post-industrial 21st century, states thus have a co-equal role in strategy and policy development, resourcing and operational execution to perform security and resilience missions. This book argues that only a Network Federal governance will provide unity of effort to mature the Homeland Security Enterprise. The places to start implementing network federal mechanisms are in the ten FEMA regions. To that end, it recommends establishment of Regional Preparedness Staffs, composed of Federal, state and local personnel serving as co-equals on Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) rotational assignments. These IPAs would form the basis of an intergovernmental and interdisciplinary homeland security professional cadre to build a collaborative national preparedness culture. As facilitators of regional unity of effort with regard to prioritization of risk, planning, resourcing and operational execution, these Regional Preparedness Staffs would provide the Nation with decentralized network nodes enabling security and resilience in this 21st century post-industrial strategic environment.

Federalism and disaster response : examining the roles and responsibilities of local, state, and federal agencies : hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, October 19, 2005.

Public Security in Federal Polities is the first systematic and methodical study to bring together the fields of security studies and comparative federalism. The volume explores the symbiotic relationship between public security concerns and institutional design, public administration, and public policy across nine federal country case studies: Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. In addressing specific national security concerns and aspects of globalization that are challenging conventional approaches to global, international, regional, and domestic security, this volume examines how the constitutional and institutional framework of a society affects the effectiveness and efficiency of public security arrangements. Public Security in Federal Polities identifies differences and similarities, highlights best practices, and draws out lessons for both particular federations, and for federal systems in general. This book is essential reading for scholars, students, practitioners as well as policy- and decision-makers of security and federalism.

Understanding federalism is central to the study of democratic government in the United States. This book examines the historical and philosophical underpinnings of federalism; and the ways in which institutional political power is both diffused and concentrated in the United States.

A Brookings Institution Press and the National Academy of Public Administration publication America's complex system of multi-layered government faces new challenges as a result of rapidly changing economic, technological, and demographic trends. An aging population, economic globalization, and homeland security concerns are among the powerful factors testing the system's capacity and flexibility. Major policy challenges and responses are now overwhelmingly intergovernmental in nature, and as a result, the fortunes of all levels of government are more intertwined and interdependent than ever before. This volume, cosponsored by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), defines an agenda for improving the performance of America's intergovernmental system. The early chapters present the current state of practice in intergovernmental relations, including discussion of trends toward centralization, devolution, and other power-sharing arrangements. The fiscal underpinnings of the system are analyzed, along with the long-term implications of current trends in financing at all levels. The authors identify the principal tools used to define intergovernmental management–grants, mandates, preemptions—in discussing emerging models and best practices in the design and management of those tools. In tergovernmental Management for the 21st Century applies these crosscutting themes to critical policy areas where intergovernmental management and cooperation are essential, such as homeland security, education, welfare, health care, and the environment. It concludes with an authoritative assessment of the system's capacity to govern, oversee, and improve. Contributors include Jocelyn Johnston (American University), Shelley Metzenbaum (University of Maryland), Richard Nathan (SUNY at Albany), Barry Rabe (University of Michigan), Beryl Radin (American University), Alice Rivlin (Brookings Institution), Ray Sheppach (National Governors Association), Frank Shafroth (George Mason University), Troy Smith (BYU–Hawaii), Carl Stenberg (University of Nor