RESILIENCY AND A CULTURE OF PREPAREDNESS, a brief history 2001-2011
This is an updated extract of a longer and more detailed version of my chapter “Resiliency and a Culture of Preparedness,” in Homeland Security Cultures, Siedschlag and Jerkovic, Ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, chapter 14, p. 280,?https://tinyurl.com/y2mlqme6
Our national preparedness is the shared responsibility of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and individual citizens. Everyone can contribute to safeguarding the Nation from harm.[i]
Greater civilian participation is necessary both to make military operations successful and to relieve stress on the men and women of the armed forces. Having permanent civilian capabilities available and using them early could also make it less likely that military forces will need to be deployed in the first place.[ii]
?Introduction
???????????Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from stress. If you bend a piece of metal and it returns to its original shape, it is resilient. If a community returns to normal after a disaster, it is resilient. For example, in a situation with any more than a few injured people, a community with a large number of first-aid trained civilians will fare better – be more resilient - because the first-aid trained civilians will tend to the minor injuries and the uniformed first responders will be able to focus on the more serious ones. The second quotation, above, is the military way of saying it.
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???????????Although the ‘homeland security enterprise’ began in 2001, the phrase, ‘culture of preparedness,’ is not discussed in any detail until 2007. By 2011, however, the concept had matured, and resiliency, preparedness, and a culture of preparedness were the focus of discussions. In the beginning, preparedness was a new concept. Executive Order 13234[iii] from 2001, established the ‘‘Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War on Terrorism. ??HSPD 5 (Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5),[iv] in 2003, established the National Incident Management System, or “NIMS,” to enable responders from all jurisdictions and disciplines to work together.
???????????In 2004, the notion of preparedness as its own, valuable idea is still developing.?HSPD 10, Biodefense for the 21st Century[v] mentioned ‘preparedness,’ but only in stating that it requires “involvement of a wide range of Federal departments and agencies.” Similarly, resiliency is referred to but not by name, in the section on Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Protecting our critical infrastructure from the effects of biological weapons attacks is a priority. A biological weapons attack might deny us access to essential facilities and response capabilities. Therefore, we are working to improve the survivability and ensure the continuity and restoration of operations of critical infrastructure sectors following biological weapons attacks.
???????????This is resilience, true, but it is not named, and it only comes as a means to “improve the survivability…of critical infrastructure.” It is not yet recognized as a virtue in its own regard.
???????????The 9/11 Commission Implementation Act of 2004[vi] established NIMS and ICS.??
The Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA), Oct. 2006,[vii]
mandated that the FEMA Administrator have emergency management qualifications and experience;
established the Target Capabilities List. “… risk-based target capabilities for … preparedness that will enable the Nation to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against all hazards...”
?????established an Office of Emergency Communications in DHS to
(4) … promote the ability of emergency response providers and relevant government officials to continue to communicate … (5) … develop … interoperable emergency communications capabilities … (8) develop… standard operating procedures and best practices with respect to use of interoperable emergency communications …
[Under this section, interoperable emergency communications technology was to be nonproprietary.]
·?????mandated a National Emergency Communications Plan to provide recommendations regarding how the United States should (1) support and promote the ability of emergency response providers and relevant government officials to continue to communicate in the event of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters; and (2)… attain interoperable emergency communications nationwide, and (8) recommend goals and timeframes for the deployment of emergency, command-level communications systems based on new and existing equipment across the United States and develop a timetable for the deployment of interoperable emergency communications systems nationwide…
?????????In 2006, the Public Alert and Warning System, Executive Order 13407,[viii] established the policy for public alerts and warning systems. It is
…to have an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people in situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other hazards to public safety and well-being (public alert and warning system)
Four months later, Congress passed the Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act of 2006.[ix] ?It required formation of an Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) about what is called, commercial mobile service[x] for providing emergency alerts. The FCC was put on a tight time schedule. It had 180 days from receipt of the Advisory Committee recommendations to adopt technical standards and protocols, and then another 120 days to implement them. ?The statute also included a grant program “to provide for outdoor alerting technologies in remote communities effectively unserved by commercial mobile service…?for the purpose of enabling residents of those communities to receive emergency alerts.”
???????????Title III, of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act, 2007,[xi] is called “Ensuring Communications Interoperability for First Responders.” Section 901 is entitled Private Sector Preparedness. Section 1204, promotes the development of a Domestic Preparedness Consortium to “identify, develop, test, and deliver training to State, local, and tribal emergency response providers, provide on-site and mobile training at the performance and management and planning levels, and facilitate the delivery of training by the training partners of the Department.”
???????????The private sector is becoming more of a named actor. Here, the National Strategy for Homeland Security, 2007,[xii] takes another step and mentions “an informed and active citizenry.”
To best protect the American People, homeland security must be a responsibility shared across our entire Nation…[xiii] … In order to complete this truly national effort, we also must encourage and draw upon an informed and active citizenry. For instance, citizens should each understand what to do if they observe suspicious behavior in their community[xiv] and what to do in the event of an attack or natural disaster …[xv]
???????????The National Strategy for Homeland Security, 2007, goes further and deserves special recognition for its efforts toward developing a culture of preparedness “that permeates all levels of our society…”[xvi] This culture of preparedness rests on several principles - One is “the importance of individual and collective initiative … reward[ing] innovation and new ways of thinking…”[xvii] The other and perhaps the most important is recognition that
… individual citizens, communities, the private sector, and non-profit organizations each perform a central role in homeland security. Citizen and community preparedness are among the most effective means of securing the Homeland… All Americans must share in the full range of homeland security activities, including prevention and protection, but it is particularly important that we all take responsibility for increasing the likelihood that we can survive an incident and care for our own basic needs in the immediate aftermath. As more Americans contribute to homeland security through self-reliance and mutual assistance, we reduce the burden on our emergency responders so they can focus on those most in need…[xviii]
???????????This same theme appears in HSPD 21.[xix] The purpose of HSPD 21 was to “establish a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness (Strategy)…” Number (20) defines Community Resilience and mandates federal government assistance:
…Where local civic leaders, citizens, and families are educated regarding threats and are empowered to mitigate their own risk, where they are practiced in responding to events, where they have social networks to fall back upon, and where they have familiarity with local public health and medical systems, there will be community resilience that will significantly attenuate the requirement for additional assistance. The Federal Government must formulate a comprehensive plan for promoting community public health and medical preparedness to assist State and local authorities in building resilient communities in the face of potential catastrophic health events.
????????This same theme appears yet again in the 2008 National Defense Strategy.[xx]
…We as a nation must strengthen not only our military capabilities, but also reinvigorate other important elements of national power and develop the capability to integrate, tailor, and apply these tools as needed. We must tap the full strength of America and its people…
We must deploy civilian expertise rapidly, and continue to increase effectiveness by joining with organizations and people outside of government – untapped resources with enormous potential. We can make better use of the expertise of our universities and of industry to assist in reconstruction and long-term improvements to economic vitality and good governance. Greater civilian participation is necessary both to make military operations successful and to relieve stress on the men and women of the armed forces. Having permanent civilian capabilities available and using them early could also make it less likely that military forces will need to be deployed in the first place.
???????????The concept of national resilience was introduced in the Top Ten Challenges Facing the Next Secretary of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Advisory Council, 2008.[xxi] It identified “…strategic national challenges that the next Secretary [of Homeland Security] will need to address. These include shifting our preparedness and protection efforts towards a concept of national resiliency…” Key Challenge 7…
Lead The Building of a Resilient America… The ability to absorb the blows and quickly snap back from the consequences of any event, natural or manmade [resilience], will be the measure of long-term security success. The Nation-wide application of a “resilience metric” (i.e., time to reconstitution of every day services and routines of life) builds on traditional, sector-focused protection efforts and provides the means to objectively assess, triage, and significantly mitigate and effectively manage the initial and cascading consequences of infrastructure service disruption, regardless of cause. An all-hazards approach to building resiliency should become an overarching theme throughout our homeland security enterprises.
???????????In the section entitled, “Public-private partnerships,” this document elaborates:
Resilience is a unifying goal that must be addressed by the entire Federal Government and Nation. Thus, the new Secretary must ensure that DHS policies and programs empower, enable and leverage the experience, vision and innovation that reside in private sector, community, state and regional-based resilience efforts. Ensure continuous improvement in national resilience by actively engaging and acting upon private-sector and academic-sector thought… As an extension of the above, the government must also support the development of a nationwide system of community-based, cross-sector, resilience-focused partnerships to empower communities to collaborate in their collective best interests.
???????????PPD 8. National Preparedness, 2011[xxii] [xxiii] [xxiv]?“is aimed at strengthening the security and resilience of the United States through systematic preparation...” “national preparedness is the shared responsibility” of all Americans. It established a National Preparedness Goal.
???????????We have seen from previous documents that the system being created is “integrated, layered, and all of nation.” Each part is separate but connected to the others, can be used alone or in conjunction with others, and applies to everyone. This is reflected in the actual National Preparedness Goal: “A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”[xxv]
PPD 8 makes fostering this an affirmative duty of DHS.
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall coordinate a comprehensive campaign to build and sustain national preparedness, including public outreach and community-based and private-sector programs to enhance national resilience, the provision of Federal financial assistance, preparedness efforts by the Federal Government, and national research and development efforts.
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THE FUTURE
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????????????Complacency is a step backwards. How do we get people to do it? ?Incentivizing resilience and preparedness is a homeland security challenge.
[i] Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness, March 30, 2011. <https://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policy-directive-8-national-preparedness>.
[ii] National Defense Strategy, June 2008, p. 17. https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=487840
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[iii]Executive Order 13234 of November 9, 2001, Presidential Task Force on Citizen Preparedness in the War on Terrorism, Federal Register Vol. 66, No. 22.. <https://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2001_register&docid=fr15no01-130.pdf>
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[iv] HSPD 5, Feb. 28, 2003.?https://www.dhs.gov/publication/homeland-security-presidential-directive-5
[v] HSPD 10. Biodefense for the 21st Century, April 28, 2004. The quotation is from the section entitled “Prevention and Protection” and subsection entitled “Critical Infrastructure Protection.” ?<https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/hspd-10.html>
[vi] Title VII—Implementation Of 9/11 Commission Recommendations, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Subtitle C—National Preparedness, Public Law 108–458—Dec. 17, 2004. https://www.dni.gov/files/NCTC/documents/RelatedContent_documents/Intelligence_Reform_Act.pdf
[vii] Public Law 109–295, Title VI, Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, 2006 (Oct. 4, 2006). <https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/Post_Katrina_Emergency_Management_Reform_Act_pdf.pdf>
[viii] Public Alert and Warning System, Executive Order 13407 of June 26, 2006. <https://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13407.htm>
[ix] Warning, Alert, And Response Network Act, Title VI of the Security And Accountability For Every Port Act Of 2006, Public Law 109-347, October 13, 2006. <https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-109hr5785ih/pdf/BILLS-109hr5785ih.pdf>
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[x] Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) is a regulatory classification for mobile phone service in the U.S. created by the Federal Communications Commissions in 1993. It governs cellular, SMR/ESMR and PCS communication under a single regulatory umbrella. Under the law, mobile services are regulated as common carriers if they wish to deliver services to the general public. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/6525/commercial-mobile-radio-services-cmrs
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[xi] Implementing Recommendations Of The 9/11 Commission Act Of 2007, August 3, 2007, PL 110-53. < https://www.nsa.gov/about/civil-liberties/resources/assets/files/pl_110_53_sec_803_9_11_committee_act.pdf>
[xii] National Strategy for Homeland Security, Homeland Security Council, October, 2007. <https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/nat_strat_homelandsecurity_2007.pdf>
[xiii] National Strategy for Homeland Security, October 2007, letter from George W. Bush, October 5, 2007.
[xiv] By the author: For example, “IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.”
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Arizona’ 8 Signs of Terrorism. <https://8signs.jmhelfgot.com/toc.html>
20210804. https://azactic.gov/media/terrorismsigns
[xv] National Strategy for Homeland Security, October 2007, p. 4
[xvi] National Strategy for Homeland Security, 2007, p. 41.
[xvii] National Strategy for Homeland Security, 2007, p. 41
[xviii] Emphasis added. National Strategy for Homeland Security, 2007, p. 42.
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[xix] HSPD 21, October 18, 2007. <https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/hspd-21.htm>.
[xx] National Defense Strategy, June 2008, p. 17. ?<https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2008NationalDefenseStrategy.pdf>.
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[xxi] Top Ten Challenges … Homeland Security Advisory Council, September 11, 2008, pp. 11-12.?<https://fas.org/irp/agency/dhs/topten.pdf>.
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[xxii] Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness, March 30, 2011. <https://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policy-directive-8-national-preparedness>.
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[xxiii] PPD 8 replaced HSPD 8, first issued 12-17-2003.<https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=441951>
[xxiv] It is interesting to note that the phrase, “national preparedness goal” was first mentioned in HSPD 8 in 2003. It is mentioned again in PKEMRA in 2006, in section 643: “The President, acting through the [FEMA] Administrator, shall complete…a national preparedness goal…” The concept appears a third time in PPD 8 in March of 2011 where it is finally acted upon. The First Edition of the National Preparedness Goal was published in September 2011.
Similarly, Congress, through PKEMRA, in section 644, mandated the President develop a national preparedness system. It too was written as an affirmative duty but was not advanced until mentioned again in PPD 8 and then published in November 2011.
[xxv] The goal: < https://www.fema.gov/national-preparedness-goal