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Presidential
Leadership to Improve Homeland Security:
CSP’s Homeland Security team has worked with Executive Branch leadership
and Congressional members and staff since early 2001. In 2002, CSP began
actively advising decision makers via our Homeland Security Roundtable
Series with experts from the policy community, academia, national laboratories,
and the private sector. The Center also develops issue papers and policy
studies. To
support the Center's Homeland Security Projects, please click here.
Current initiatives include:
- Combating
Nuclear Terrorism
Beginning in May 2004, the Center began hosting off-the-record
roundtables with senior leadership from the White House, the national
labs, and the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security
to solve a bureaucratic impasse across the executive branch that was
stalling a defense against the nation’s single greatest threat
– smuggled nuclear weapons.
Drawing from these meetings, CSP formed its Nuclear
Defense Steering Committee, chaired by Norman Augustine. The Steering
Committee developed recommendations to create a modern-day “mini
Manhattan Project” to marshal the nation’s efforts for
defending against smuggled nuclear weapons. After consultations with
the Steering Committee, in a January 2005 presentation to the White
House Deputies Committee, Deputy Secretary Admiral Loy proposed establishing
what is now the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). The office
– reporting to Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff –
will coordinate nuclear detection R&D, develop deployment strategies,
and spearhead next-generation technologies to defend against the smuggled
nuclear threat.
- A
Layered Prevention Strategy Against Weapons of Mass Effect
During his first months at the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), Secretary Chertoff shifted from a preparedness/response
focus to include a strategic emphasis on prevention. In a January
2005 meeting with the Secretary’s Senior Advisory Council director,
CSP President David Abshire and Director of Homeland Security Projects
Jonah Czerwinski discussed the urgent need to organize the executive
branch to defend against smuggled nuclear weapons and other “weapons
of mass effect.”
In a separate effort, Secretary Chertoff’s Homeland Security
Advisory Council established a senior-level Task Force on Preventing
Weapons of Mass Effect (WME) on American Soil March 2005. The Task
Force is charged with developing a layered prevention strategy against
WME. Organized into three subgroups, the Task Force is led by CSP
President David Abshire (chair of the Sea Domain Group), Norm Augustine
(chair of the Air Domain Group), and James Schlesinger (chair of the
Land Domain Group).
Jonah Czerwinski also was asked to serve as a subject
matter expert for the Taskforce and as a writer for the final report.
The report, which is due before Secretary Chertoff in October 2005,
will present a layered defense strategy, analysis of the gaps representing
vulnerabilities to the WME threat, and a set of strategic recommendations.
- Bridging
the Transatlantic Divide to Meet Shared 21st Century Threats
In a March 2004 CSP Roundtable, Under Secretary of
Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson met with a diverse group of experts
to discuss the international challenges facing homeland security. The
group discovered a serious disconnect between the Departments of Homeland
Security, State, and Defense concerning the North Atlantic Council (NAC).
It became clear that while State and Defense traditionally share the
NATO mission, DHS had yet to define its role there in pursuing U.S.
homeland security interests abroad.
This disconnect prompted a Center project to identify how the President
could lead NATO more effectively to combat terrorism. A Center team
traveled to Paris, Brussels, and London to confer with senior diplomatic
and military officials. During meetings with NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and several NATO Ambassadors, the Center proposed
elevating the NAC as a multilateral venue for sharing homeland security
best practices.
These and further consultations helped produce a May 2005 Center report,
Maximizing NATO for the War on Terror. An advanced copy of this report
accompanied Homeland Security chief Chertoff on his first trip to Europe
as Secretary. Building on the Center’s transatlantic work in 2004-05,
we begin our new effort, Transatlantic Strategic Dialogue: Strengthening
Multilateral Leadership, addressing three primary challenges:
- Unifying Transatlantic Threat Perception and Risk
Assessment
- Reconciling America’s “War on Terror” with Europe’s
“Fight Against Terrorism”
- Improving Transatlantic Communications
- The
National Guard and Reserves: Strained Support in Need of Reform
In the post 9/11 world and with the war in Iraq, the
National Guard and Reserves are being asked to do more than ever before.
CSP has partnered with the Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), the American Red Cross, the George Washington University, the
Secretary of Defense, and the Reserve Forces Policy Board to explore
such reforms.
On 27 July 2005, the Center held the most recent meeting
of its Roundtable Series. This session, chaired by CSP president David
Abshire, focused on the first ever Strategy for Homeland Defense and
Civil Support from the Department of Defense (DOD). Released in July,
the strategy creates new guidelines for homeland security and calls
for the successful coordination of various executive agencies, state
and local authorities, non-governmental organizations, and the private
sector. The DOD Strategy is expected to have profound effects on the
future strategic missions and operations of the National Guard and Reserves.
This candid, “two-way” dialogue, led by
Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale and key representatives from
the White House, Department of Homeland Security, policy community,
and private sector, covered various aspects of the strategy and highlighted
several issues that remain unsolved.
Support The Center:
To
support the Center's Homeland Security Projects, please click here.
Publications:
Maximizing Nato for the War
on Terror
A LONG-TERM RESPONSE TO BIOLOGICAL
TERRORISM: Homeland Security Leaders Need Shared Intellectual Framework
and Greater International Cooperation
Comprehensive Strategic Reform:
The Strategic Challenge
Marshalling Science, Bridging
the Gap: How to Win the War Against Terrorism and Build a Better Peace
Lessons for the 21st Century:
Vulnerability and Surprise December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001
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Involved Center
for the Study of the Presidency
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2005 - 2018 |
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