Terrorism, homeland security and the national emergency management framework / [text] William L. Waugh.

Reproduced from Public Organization Review : A Global Journal, Vol. 3(4), December 2003, pp. 373-385.

Includes bibliographical references pp. 384-385.

On September 11, 2001, officials and agencies that are part of the national emergency managment system orchestrated the responses to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and the fires at the Pentagon. The efforts of local, state and federal agencies were augmented by nonprofit organisations, private firms, and organised and unorganised volunteers. The system reacted much as it would have for a major earthquake or similiar disaster. In the rush to create federal and state offices to deal with the threat of terrorism and, ultimately to create a Department of Homeland Security, the very foundation of the nation's capacity to deal with large scale disasters has been largely ignored. Although the human and materials resources that the emergency management network provides may again be critical in a terrorist-spawned catastrophe, the new Homeland Security system may not be capable of utilising those resources effectively. The values of transparency, cooperation, and collaboration that have come to characterise emergency management over the past decade seem to be supplanted in the new command-and-control-oriented Homeland Security system. If that occurs, when the resources of the national emergency management network are needed most, the capacity to utilise the system may be severely damaged and cultural interoperability will be a serious problem.