Making the Nation Safe in the Twenty-First Century

In order to best protect the nation in the twenty-first century, the national securitysystem must interact to its fullest capacity, developing a seamless transition between lawenforcement and intelligence efforts to more effectively address the threats of today andtomorrow. In today's threat environment, known state actors have been replaced byglobalized insurgencies, many of whom believe that their enemies are the United Statesand other western civilizations. Rules of engagement are nonexistent as civilians are asmuch a target as military and government entities. Since 9/11, these shadowy enemieshave continued to silently creep onto U.S. soil and lie hidden within U.S. opencommunities. As a result, today's national security system must do more. It must nowand forever ensure maximum and simultaneous leveraging of both its domestic lawenforcement and intelligence capabilities to guarantee quick translation of covertintelligence into action; thus, creating a more agile response and ability to keep pace withtoday's ever-changing threats. But arguably, restructuring the system to look different isnot a complete solution. As today's threats have evolved, so too should the securitysystem. In order to achieve the necessary reform, it is equally important that the securitysystem think and act differently through learning, unlearning and relearning (Toffler, year). Unquestionably, since 9/11, the threat environment, expectations, and margins oferror have significantly changed for all of the national security system players andstakeholders. The safety of the nation depends, in part, on how quickly and effectivelythis system responds to today's globally driven security threats with an equally proactiveand reactive response

Author: Naval Postgraduate School

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Jun 24, 2014

Number of Pages: 82 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1500295000

ISBN-13: 9781500295004