Modeling Homeland Security

Abstract

The events of September 11, 2001, have propelled the topic of homeland security to the forefront of national concern. The threat of terrorism within the United States has reached an unprecedented level. The potential vulnerabilities present in the nation's critical infrastructure, coupled with the destructive capabilities and deadly intentions of modern terrorists, pose extraordinary risks. The United States must mitigate these risks while at the same time balancing the associated costs and impact on civil liberties. Currently, there is a need for effective methods and measures for assessing the security of the homeland from acts of terrorism at the aggregate, national level. This study develops a first-cut decision-analysis-based methodology for identifying and structuring key homeland security capabilities and facilitating the measurement of the United States' capability to execute these required capabilities.