Terrorists are good at identifying weaknesses in our defenses, breaking paradigms, and looking at ways to highlight their causes.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 14 in Martin (2016) and Reading 21 “Infectious Disease and National Security” in Capron & Mizrahi (2016). To check your understanding of the material required for this discussion, you may wish to access the quizzes and flash card activities on the companion website for the Martin (2016) text.

Quite frankly, it seems that we are always revising our defenses based on the last attack. Terrorists are good at identifying weaknesses in our defenses, breaking paradigms, and looking at ways to highlight their causes. A case in point is the progression in the use of the explosive devices. For example, suicide bombers targeted groups of people, and then we started to see larger bombs being deployed by suicide bombers in vehicles. We modified our defenses. Subsequently, there was an attack against the American warship the U.S.S. Cole by a small boat. Once again, we changed our processes and procedures to protect our ships while in port. The next major event in this progression was the use of airplanes to take down the World Trade Towers. In each case, the terrorists improvised the employment of the explosives by suicide bombers to carry out an attack. Consequently, in each case, the government changed processes, procedures, and physical security to help protect against a future attack.

In Chapter 14, Martin (2016) highlights that:

An underlying theme throughout this discussion has been that homeland security is an evolving concept. Organizational cooperation and coordination are certainly desirable, but it must be remembered that these can only occur if political and policy responses are able to adapt to changes in the terrorist environment….These threats reflect the creativity and determination of those who wage terrorist campaigns against the United States and its allies. (Martin, 2016, p. 439)

What and where will the next major attack be? Infectious disease can be just as devastating as one of the physical attacks mentioned above. You can see the effects and the psychological effects based on the anthrax letters sent to Congressmen after 9/11, or in the Ebola response in Africa in 2014 – 2015.

For this assignment you will take on the role of an executive from the Center for Disease Control, one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. Your goal is to solicit support from an executive from the DHS to secure funding for the recommendations found in the article by Tucker and Kadlec, “Infectious Disease and National Security” (Reading 21 in Capron 2016). Utilizing the required readings for this discussion, make your case to the DHS executive to support your proposal to Congress. Keep in mind the limited funding and the national debt – the funding will have to come from the existing budget.

Make your case and prioritize the recommendations for implementation as part of our nation’s preparedness for the next attack. Determine whether or not it is affordable to put these recommendations off to future budgets. Your initial post must be a minimum of 500 words in length. Support your post with examples from required materials, scholarly sources, or official government sources. Use APA formatting to cite your sources in text as well as at the end of your post.