Introduction
One of the critical threats that the United States is facing today revolves around acts of terrorism, which are instigated by Islamic radicals targeting innocent civilians. Terrorism is described as the unlawful use of violence and intimidation with the sole intention being towards pursuing a political agenda while targeting civilians. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York within the United States, it has become clear that indeed the country is facing an eminent threat touching on matters of terrorism. The attack sought to highlight the need for the country to come up with a comprehensive approach through which to deal with the issue of terrorism, as it relates to the impacts on the civilians. The fight against terrorism has been noted as one of the key priorities for the national security agencies, which include the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The need for having to engage in a discussion on terrorism reflects more on ensuring that the country can build on a positive framework through which to guarantee overall efficiency. One of the critical areas of expectation for the security agencies in dealing with the issue of terrorism has been on the fact that they must always work towards preventing and promoting preparedness on matters of terrorism. Prevention and preparation are vital towards ensuring that security agencies can put in place the relevant measures that would guarantee effectiveness in dealing with the eminent threats. The focus for this report is to discuss a key theme in the issue of terrorism, which is prevention and preparedness, with the aim being towards examining views from different articles touching on this theme.
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Description of the Theme
The theme selected for this report entails prevention and preparedness, which are critical aspects in understanding factors relating to terrorism. The description of the theme in the textbook focuses on the analysis of a situation involving various attacks relating to terrorism. In March 2011, the federal security services of Russia identified a follower of radical and informed the FBI and the CIA for them to make proper investigations regarding the individual. The FBI engaged the individual, Tamerian Tsarnaev in an interview that focused on obtaining critical information concerning his involvement in radical Islam. However, the FBI failed to get evidence linking him to any terrorist activity but put his name under the watch list. Russia's federal security services obtained information considering the travel intentions of Tamerian despite being under watch list and shared the information with the CIA. He managed to travel oversees in 2012 considering that the information had not been passed to all security agencies including the FBI.
Following a devastating terrorist attack by Tamerian's brother, critics blamed various security agencies for failing to prevent the attack despite having crucial information that would suggest the need for a terror alert. The critics accused the FBI and the CIA of failing to capitalize on intelligence measures that would help to analyze the terror suspect that was identified by Russia's federal security services. The major problem identified in this case entails the inability to share crucial information that may help in obtaining terrorism links, which is an essential aspect towards dealing with the issue of terrorism. Additionally, this would assist in providing a platform for creating preparedness against terrorism, which helps in preventing terror attacks. An important element described in the prevention and preparedness theme focuses on the development of different security approaches that aid in creating a comprehensive methodology towards dealing with terrorism.
The development of different security approaches capitalizes on ensuring that various security agencies within a given region understand the importance of sharing crucial information that would help in identifying any terrorism links. Additionally, the approaches would play a significant role in devising preventive measures against terrorism. In this case, sharing of information between the FBI, the CIA, and other security agencies would help in preventing the 9/11 attack significantly and create a platform whereby the society is prepared to handle a terrorist attack. The security approach should capitalize on elaborate and effective preventative measures that would limit the number of terrorist activities undertaken within a given region.
Although the preventative measures may be useful, there are chances that terrorist may still engage in activities that would cause harm. In that case, it is necessary to capitalize on the establishment of preparedness measures that may help in ensuring that society is prepared to face different forms of terrorism. The preparedness measures may include the establishment of emergency responses that may help in reducing the number of causalities in case of a terror attack. Additionally, the measures may include the provision of adequate knowledge concerning how individual are required to react following a terrorist attack. Another critical aspect in the prevention and preparedness theme entails focusing on intelligence. The reorganization of the intelligence community plays an important role in obtaining crucial information regarding possible terror attacks plans. The security agencies should focus on intelligence as the critical source of terror information to prevent possible attacks.
Articles Analysis
An analysis of the articles gathered based on the theme of prevention and preparedness, what is clear is that the authors tend to have a clear understanding of terrorism as it relates to the underlying impacts that it is having on the public. Additionally, the authors also seek to build their understanding of terrorism based on their knowledge of prevention and preparedness efforts. Schmid (2018) argues that a significant lack of proper preventive measures may be considered as one of the key challenges that are likely to advance the nature of terrorism threats that the country is facing. That means that the threats are expected to increase if the security agencies do not adopt any measures that would aid in promoting effective preparedness especially in maximizing on the existing security structures.
Salame-Alfie & Ansari (2018), on the other hand, point out that one of the critical successes associated with counterterrorism is the ability for the agencies to promote coordination with the sole intention being towards keeping track of the evolving tactics adopted by terrorist organizations. In this article, what is clear is that indeed terrorism is evolving, as the organizations seek to adopt new ways through which to define their respective efforts. That means that the adoption of preventive measures would serve as a guarantee that the security agencies would be able to keep track of the changing threats (Salame-Alfie & Ansari, 2018). The ultimate impact that this is likely to have is that it would seek to define the need for having to put in place relevant structures that would help towards preventing the occurrence of these threats.
Terrorism prevention and preparedness should not only be considered as the role of the security agencies but must also involve the local communities, who will play a critical role in the prevention efforts by sharing of information on possible threats (Rosenfeld, Mitra, Smit, Fitzgerald, Butson, Stephenson, & Reade, 2018). From the general understanding of terrorism, what is clear is that civilians find themselves in a position where they are much more likely to suffer as a result of the threats. Consequently, this serves as one of the ways that would seek to ensure that the local communities are involved in all matters of security with an intention of building overall efficiency. Rosenfeld et al. (2018) suggest the need for having to adopt a structure in which the local communities are involved in all efforts aimed at dealing with matters of terrorism. That would aid their abilities to actually improve on overall capacity to deliver on what would be considered as a structured avenue for advanced performance.
The important role of prevention and preparedness can be seen from the fact that this serves to build a guarantee in terms of ensuring that the people remain safe from any terrorist threats. Saeed, Wasim, Aziz, & Siddiqui (2018) argue that the importance of preparedness is not only focused on the terrorist acts but also reflects on ensuring that the relevant agencies are prepared for any possible attacks while ensuring that they have a clear understanding of what they are expected to do in the event of an attack. Preparedness seeks to ensure that the securities are able to work in coordination with an aim of maximizing on the existing efforts to enhancing overall efficiency in dealing with the possibility of an attack occurring.
Arguello & Buis (2018) take note of the fact that nature of terrorism attacks may vary depending on the groups involved, as some of these groups tend to consider strategic efforts that include chemical, biological, and explosives weapons to aid in their agendas. The adoption of the expected prevention and preparedness efforts seeks to ensure that the security agencies are able to work towards preventing or preparing for the possibility of each of the threats. The approaches taken as part of terrorism prevention and preparedness may depend wholly on the overall expectations towards dealing with the existing threats that the country may face (Arguello & Buis, 2018). The ultimate outcome is that this seeks to suggest the need for having to ensure that the agencies indeed work towards coordinating their efforts. That would also mean that they would in a much more viable position allowing them to neutralize the threats effectively.
From an analysis of the articles, it becomes clear that the authors agree on the fact that building information-sharing partnerships would be considered as one of the key efforts that would guarantee overall efficiency. Information-sharing partnerships involve both security agencies and the local communities, which would mean that the people would have the confidence allowing them to share information on possible terrorist threats. The authors also agree on the fact that there must be coordinated efforts in federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement. The need for coordination is to ensure that the security agencies are well aware of what is expected of them as part of their strategic efforts to dealing with the existing threats. Additionally, this also seeks to ensure that the security agencies are able to maximize on their respective capacities to identifying and neutralizing terrorist groups that seek to create a threat.
On the other hand, it must also be noted that the authors also disagree on specific points touching on the issue of prevention and preparedness with regard to the terrorism threats that the country faces. The key point of disagreement revolves around the issue of threats that come from abroad, which pose serious security challenges for the country. On one hand, some of the authors agree with the fact that the federal government has a key role towards banning immigrants from specific countries. These countries pose the greatest threats on matters of terrorism, which means that limiting immigrants would aid in reducing the possibility of terrorism occurring within the United States. Some of the other authors believe that this approach only seeks to victimize immigrants, most of who are not involved in acts of terrorism.
Personal Perspective
Based on the analysis of the theme of prevention and preparedness, I have developed the perspective that dealing with the issue of terrorism ought to be considered as a concerted effort that involves every individual in the community. Personally, I have taken note of the fact that the authors tend to suggest the importance of having to work hard to create a structured approach through which to share relevant information. That can only be achieved in the event that the security agencies would seek to educate members of the community on their role in the prevention and preparedness approaches. That means that they ought to understand that they have a key role to play in ensuring that they are able to deal with the threats that the community encounters effectively.
Another key aspect to note with regard to my personal perspective on the issue is that I tend to believe in the fact that building on collaborative efforts between the agencies that work on matters of terrorism may play a critical role towards establishing a clear framework for advanced performance. I believe that it would be important for the agencies to come up with a strategic approach that would allow them to change the way in which they engage with other agencies. An example can been seen in the case of ensuring that the FBI is able to build on its capacity to offer effective assistance to the DHS and CIA in ensuring that they are able to counter the threat that they face. From my understanding, I tend to hold the view that this would not only be considered as being effective from the perspective of preventing terrorism but would also help in the identification of persons that are likely to contribute to such security threats around the country.
Conclusion
In summary, one of the key threats that the United States is facing today revolves around acts of terrorism. The fight against terrorism has been noted as one of the key priorities for the national security agencies, which include the FBI, CIA, and DHS. The theme selected for this report entails prevention and preparedness, which are critical aspects in understanding factors relating to terrorism. The development of different security approaches capitalizes on ensuring that different security agencies within a given region understands the importance of sharing crucial information that would help in identifying any terrorism links. An analysis of the articles gathered based on the theme of prevention and preparedness indicates that the authors also seek to build their understanding of terrorism based on their understanding of prevention and preparedness efforts. The authors agree on the fact that building information-sharing partnerships would be considered as one of the key efforts that would guarantee overall efficiency. The authors also agree on the fact that there must be coordinated efforts in federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement. The key point of disagreement revolves around the issue of threats that come from abroad, which pose serious security challenges for the country.
References
Arguello, I., & Buis, E. J. (2018). The global impacts of a terrorist nuclear attack: What would happen? What should we do?. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , 74 (2), 114-119.
Rosenfeld, J. V., Mitra, B., Smit, D. V., Fitzgerald, M. C., Butson, B., Stephenson, M., & Reade, M. C. (2018). Preparedness for treating victims of terrorist attacks in Australia: Learning from recent military experience. Emergency Medicine Australasia , 30 (5), 722-724.
Saeed, F., Wasim, M., Aziz, A., & Siddiqui, A. A. (2018). Restraining Terrorism: A UWB Based Communications Infrastructure for Preventing Terrorist Activities in Pakistan. Journal of Information Communication Technologies and Robotic Applications , 60-65.
Salame-Alfie, A., & Ansari, A. (2018). Assessment of National Efforts in Emergency Preparedness for Nuclear Terrorism: Is there a Need for Realignment to Close Remaining Gaps?. Health physics , 114 (2), 261-269.
Schmid, A. P. (2018). Call for Contributors to Handbook of Terrorism Prevention and Preparedness. Perspectives on Terrorism , 12 (4), 182-184.
