Reference no: EM133418931

Questions: Discussion Board assignment please discuss some potential topics you are interested in moving toward for your Policy Memo assignments (see the Assignments/Policy Memo folder on Blackboard for additional details on the scope of this project).

If you are already set on a direction and know what you are interested in discussing, please detail what aspects of the topic you might be looking to tackle or what kind of angle you are considering. If you are on the fence about a topic, you can lay out a few topics and discuss what you are looking into more generally. Finally, if you are entirely unsure of what direction you would like to go with this assignment feel free to discuss that as well. The goal of this Discussion Board assignment is to gauge where everyone is in relation to your assignment well before the due date.

For those who are unsure of a direction, see below for some potential homeland security threats that have been used by students in the past to build compelling Policy Memo assignments:

Natural Hazards and Disasters:
Hurricane Response
Various parts of the country are annually threatened by inclement weather. While many of these locations do have certain measures in place, as we saw in the case of Hurricane Katrina there is always the potential for measures to be insufficient or poorly implemented. Students in the past have looked into hurricane protocols and discussed potential improvements that could be made to further mitigate both physical damage as well as the cost of repair in the wake of an unavoidable natural disaster.
Forest Fire Response
Like hurricanes, forest fires are becoming a recurring problem in certain parts of the country and a response from segments of the local and state-level homeland security enterprise is necessary. Students have observed this problem in the micro (local and State level controls) as well as the macro (Federal level assistance programs) and discussed potential means of both mitigating the high risk of forest fires through training and deterrence programs as well as ways to better combat incidents when they inevitably occur.
Other Environmental Disasters
As we will discuss later in the semester, the natural hazards and disasters that require a response from those in the homeland security field also include incidents of man-made environmental disasters. There is room for students to observe the legislative side of homeland security and how checks and balances are implemented in an attempt to avoid mass-scale disasters stemming from human negligence or incompetence. Additional measures or simply improved approaches could be weighed and discussed in a Policy Memo assignment that opted to focus on this particular aspect.
Terrorism or Mass Violence Incidents:
The Domestic Extreme-Right
While we discussed in class the fact that the extreme-right never "went away" entirely, the reemergence of a more visible and militant extreme-right does warrant note. Thus, a student who was interested in dissecting some of the complications around the homeland security response to domestic threats could focus on a specific group or ideological movement within the extreme right and how current responses might be improved upon or altered to more effectively handle the threat.
Lone-Wolf or Leaderless Movement Violence
In a similar vein, if a student were interested in groups on the far-left that lack a formal leadership structure (Antifa, E.L.F., etc), lone-wolf actors of varying ideologies (Elliot Rodger, Dylann Roof, etc), or incidents with no apparent ideological motivation (Las Vegas shooting) a Policy Memo assignment could be built around any of these topics. The current responses to such movements or individuals are varied depending on a litany of factors so a variety of approaches could be considered and discussed in response to the specific threat you choose. If a student is most pointedly interested in the local-level homeland security apparatus this kind of topic might lead to interesting in-roads in how agencies closest to these incidents respond and handle these kinds of unique threats.