Volume 3, Issue 1

The 2004 article, "Identification of the Core Competencies Required of Executive Level Business Crisis and Continuity Managers," published in the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (Volume 1 (2004), Issue 1) presented a case for an enterprise wide Business Crisis and Continuity Management (BCCM) program, proposed a functional framework and function definitions for a comprehensive program, and laid out the research methodology to validate the framework and determine the program specific competencies required of BCCM leadership to meet their responsibilities. The purpose of this current article is three fold:1. To update the 2004 paper – specifically to update the case for an enterprise wide BCCM program which is supported by several documents and initiatives within the government and private sectors;2. To present the research-developed BCCM functional framework;3. To present the research-developed executive level BCCM functional area and function competencies.

The Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) (formerly titled Military Assistance to Civil Authorities or MACA) process is intended to provide local and State civil authorities with access to Federal military assets in response to major terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Effective coordination between the military and local civilian emergency managers (EMs) is one essential requirement for successful DSCA engagements.This paper reports the results of an exploratory study of local EMs’ understanding of the DSCA process, their ability to trigger support under DSCA and their views of how well they expect to collaborate with the military. The survey research results indicate that a majority of EMs believe that they do have the authority to initiate the DSCA process and have the ability to tell military authorities the type of assistance they require. However, our research suggests that a majority of the EMs do not have a strong understanding of the various aspects of the DSCA process, do not believe that DSCA will be implemented effectively in the future, and have a number of concerns about how the military support would be provided. We conclude with implications for future research directions on DSCA.

The object of terror is to socially and politically destabilize nations. Terror, like other forms of disaster, should trigger adaptation behaviors that would ameliorate its threat and consequences. To assess this argument, data from an Israeli national household survey was analyzed to explore adaptation behaviors associated with Arab terror attacks on Israeli civilians. Background data revealed the extensive impact and affect of terror on changing behavior. A theoretical model was then developed centering on adaptive terror preparedness (ATP), composed of 49 separate terror related behavioral changes. A factor analysis generated eight adaptation factors: avoidance, religiousness, professional help, insurance, information, future plans, coping and protective actions. Regression models run against each of the ATP components showed each adaptation component was uniquely determined by a specific set of variables and that socio-demographic characteristics were the key predictors of each adaptation component. These results support the notion that the survival strategy against terrorism, like many other types of disasters, has been behavioral adaptation. Such adaptation is, for the most part, reflected by the cognitive acceptance that terror was and can be expected to continue to be part of daily life.

A number of modeling and simulation tools have been developed and more are being developed for incident management applications. Each of these tools has focused on a specific aspect of the selected problem, for example, the simulation of plume dispersion. A set of tools that can help develop and evaluate coordination among plans for multiple aspects can substantially improve incident management capabilities. These tools need to be made interoperable and integrated together to reduce the time and effort for their use. A framework is proposed to facilitate application of modeling and simulation to incident management. The framework addresses incident management on three axes – incident, domain and lifecycle phase. It can help identify the gaps in existence of modeling and simulation tools and help define the integration needs. It is designed to allow use of modeling and simulation across the incident management lifecycle including prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. The framework can be rapidly implemented with the development of interoperability standards for modeling and simulation tools for incident management. Together, the framework and interoperability standards can significantly increase the use of modeling and simulation for incident management. In turn, it will help improve the nation’s incident management capabilities.

Terrorism casualties in the U.S. have been caused primarily by attacks on facilities. In earthquake, hurricane, infectious disease outbreaks, hazmat releases, and other disasters, peoples’ safety often depends on the facilities they occupy. Yet strategic homeland security documents issued by the White House and the US Department of Homeland Security focus on the protection of "infrastructures," understood to consist mainly of utility systems, and rarely on facilities per se. For other than federal office buildings and infrastructure nodes, federal plans barely acknowledge the urgent task of protecting civilian facilities. This article gives evidence for the importance of facilities to homeland security. Are facilities so varied and numerous that it would be cost-prohibitive to implement a national protection strategy? The article argues that it would not be. Economies of scope in multi-hazard protection, existing legal and accreditation frameworks, new possibilities for integrating information systems, and the nation’s many facility-safety professionals are all valuable resources on which to build. The U.S. should identify facility protection as a distinctive field of homeland security policy and proceed by supporting decentralized initiatives.

The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) offers a series of free, professional online courses. See the PERI homepage for more details: www.riskinstitute.org

There has been a recent government-wide effort to examine the nation’s language needs for both the purposes of security and to increase general cultural awareness. Recent surveys of government agencies have shown that more than 80 agencies require some sort of foreign language capability to complete their missions. These surveys were, however, completed before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stood up, and while there may be great need for foreign language capabilities in DHS, such as in their border patrol or customs duties, that need has not been fully documented. An assessment of DHS language needs would provide information about current and future needs and would allow the department to properly implement procedures to alleviate any problems. Potential language needs are discussed and several recommendations are made to DHS so that they could work to maintain their language capabilities, rather than fall behind.

One and a half years after the implementation of the ISPS code in Swedish ports there is still much work to be done. Port security covers so much more than technical and instrumental issues. The manners in which perceptions of threat are defined and constructed are also of central importance in understanding the rationale of working with port security. Alongside with the development of regulations, new technological tools and instrumental procedures efforts have to be put into the understanding the processes connected to their implementation. Even though the world, through the globalisation, is becoming smaller in many perspectives there are always local contexts to take into consideration. No matter the magnitude and the devastation at the epicentre of an event, the effect will be regarded differently as the shockwave decreases over time and distance in space. This article shows some of the problems related to the implementation of international regulations, in this case the implementation of the ISPS code in Swedish ports. It high-lights the relations between important actors involved, the possibilities of a Port Security Network and the effects of weak links between the actors within the network.

David G. Kamien has assembled a collection of articles on a range of homeland security and emergency management topics for The McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Handbook. An eclectic collection, reviewer William Cumming finds it to be a useful contribution to the literature and helpful to both practitioners and analysts.

Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders, in their book Earthquakes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Seismic Disruptions, delve into the human outcomes resulting from major geologic events. They explore how earthquakes have served as catalysts for significant, long-term changes in social, political, military, religious, and economic structures.

This is a selective list of papers, reports, and other materials that have been published elsewhere, but in the opinion of the editor may be of interest to our readers.