Institutionalizing Homeland Security in Education

By Xiaohong Ji

When the World Trade Center was hit by in terror attacks, collapsed not only the twin tower, but also the long-term national ignorance of threat of terrorism. The majority of the population, along with the world at large, were shocked as well as alarmed; people describe themselves as “concerned” regarding homeland security and believe that the United States is likely to be the target of yet another terrorist attack in the months ahead.

It was against this background that the Department of Homeland Security was established. Since its inception it has been striving to channel and mobilize the resources of universities and colleges in support of the national imperative—getting ready for the threat of terrorism. Over the past three years, 25 colleges and universities across the nation introduced programs in Homeland Security, and thousands of students are now engaged in courses leading up to certificate, diploma , and Master’s or even PhD degree in this new discipline. Amazingly--if we can put it this way—more universities and colleges are considering adding Homeland Security courses to their class-registration lists.

“We started teaching a Terrorism and Emergency Management course (essentially a homeland security course) in our undergraduate program prior to 9/11. We will also be teaching a homeland security course in our public administration Master’s program this summer.” said David A. McEntire, who heads the nation's oldest terrorism and emergency management program, at the University of North Texas, in Denton,

These programs, though varying in their curriculums, have the same goal of endeavoring to build a bridge between theory and practice in the homeland security arena. By focusing on an interdisciplinary set of topics, they provide broad coverage of major homeland security threats, organization, and challenges through course study in homeland defense, intelligence and homeland security, terrorism, consequence management, and interagency government issues. In the meantime, some of them also provide deep sets of course offerings in specific concentration areas that students may select based on their professional, personal, or research interests. The courses include weapons of mass destruction, crisis management, international homeland security, general national security, terrorism, security management, intelligence methods, transportation security, information security, emergency management, and public health.

“These programs”, said David A. McEntire, “are designed to teach students about the evolving homeland security apparatus and its associated programs and policies”. It is expected that the students will not only develop a better understanding of national security issues, especially terrorism and counter-terrorism strategies; but also learn how to handle them and impose control in the worst situation scenario. By and large, the students are not trained to become the C.I.A. terrorism analysts upon graduation, but unquestionable the best candidates for officials and corporate mangers needed by governmental and non-governmental organizations across the county in the immediate future.

In effect, Homeland Security education booms partly because of people’s growing awareness of terrorism and their fear for potential attacks, and partly because of strong backing from the government. Funding for the programs is ample. “The federal government is pumping billions into the Department of Homeland Security,” said McEntire, “there is demand, terrorist attacks will continue in the future, so a great deal of money is appropriated in this area.”

“DHS is converting emergency management into civil defense with a modern twist to reflect today's threat,” he emphasized.

Reference:

David A. McEntire, Ph.D.
Program Coordinator, Assistant Professor
Emergency Administration and Planning
Department of Public Administration
University of North Texas
P.O. Box 310617
Denton, TX 76203-0617
Phone: (940) 565-3292
Fax: (940) 565-4466
www.unt.edu/eadp/

http://www.homelandsecurity.gwu.edu/dhs/programs/policy/index.html

http://www.rockinst.org/publications/homeland_security.html

http://homelandsecurity.osu.edu/