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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for weapons of mass destruction
4 results foundAuthor: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Title: National Infrastructure Protection Plan: Partnering to Enhance Protection and Resiliency Summary: Protecting and ensuring the resiliency of the critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) of the United States is essential to the Nation’s security, public health and safety, economic vitality, and way of life. Attacks on CIKR could significantly disrupt the functioning of government and business alike and produce cascading effects far beyond the targeted sector and physical location of the incident. Direct terrorist attacks and natural, manmade, or technological hazards could produce catastrophic losses in terms of human casualties, property destruction, and economic effects, as well as profound damage to public morale and confidence. Attacks using components of the Nation’s CIKR as weapons of mass destruction could have even more devastating physical and psychological consequences. The NIPP provides the unifying structure for the integration of existing and future CIKR protection efforts and resiliency strategies into a single national program to achieve this goal. The NIPP framework supports the prioritization of protection and resiliency initiatives and investments across sectors to ensure that government and private sector resources are applied where they offer the most benefit for mitigating risk by lessening vulnerabilities, deterring threats, and minimizing the consequences of terrorist attacks and other manmade and natural disasters. The NIPP risk management framework recognizes and builds on existing public and private sector protective programs and resiliency strategies in order to be cost-effective and to minimize the burden on CIKR owners and operators. Protection includes actions to mitigate the overall risk to CIKR assets, systems, networks, functions, or their inter-connecting links. In the context of the NIPP, this includes actions to deter the threat, mitigate vulnerabilities, or minimize the consequences associated with a terrorist attack or other incident. Protection can include a wide range of activities, such as improving security protocols, hardening facilities, building resiliency and redundancy, incorporating hazard resistance into facility design, initiating active or passive countermeasures, installing security systems, leveraging “self-healing” technologies, promoting workforce surety programs, implementing cybersecurity measures, training and exercises, business continuity planning, and restoration and recovery actions, among various others. Achieving the NIPP goal requires actions to address a series of objectives, which include:• Understanding and sharing information about terrorist threats and other hazards with CIKR partners; • Building partnerships to share information and implement CIKR protection programs; • Implementing a long-term risk management program; and • Maximizing the efficient use of resources for CIKR protection, restoration, and recovery. These objectives require a collaborative partnership among CIKR partners, including: the Federal Government; State, local, tribal, and territorial governments; regional coalitions; the private sector; international entities; and nongovernmental organizations. The NIPP provides the framework that defines a set of flexible processes and mechanisms that these CIKR partners will use to develop and implement the national program to protect CIKR across all sectors over the long term. Details: Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security, 2009. 188p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2011 at: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_Plan.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_Plan.pdf Shelf Number: 119210 Keywords: Risk AssessmentRisk ManagementSecurityTerrorismWeapons of Mass Destruction |
Author: Schreier, Fred Title: Fighting the Pre-eminent Threats with Intelligence-led Operations Summary: This paper discusses the role of intelligence, intelligence services and intelligence-led operations as crucial components of the efforts to counter the new risks, dangers and threats to states and their population. The end of the Cold War and globalisation has not only brought a multiplication of actors, sources of conflict and means to fight. Indeed, globalisation, accelerating techno-logical innovation, growing interdependence and vulnerability of modern states has dramatically enhanced the number and diversity of risks, dangers and threats. The fact that these are increasingly transnational in nature, originate more and more often from non-state actors and appear and mutate ever more quickly, renders the fight against them more difficult. This is particularly true for the unholy trinity of transnational terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and transnational organised crime (TOC) that have become the pre-eminent security challenges confronting the world and the new intelligence priorities. TOC is growing in volume, geographic reach and profitability, and is well positioned for further growth because it does, in many ways, have the most to gain from globalization. Growth and spread of TOC increase the risks of proliferation of WMD and, with it, of catastrophic transnational terrorism as proliferants and terrorists collude ever more symbiotically with TOC groups to move money, men and materials around the globe. The more the international order is threatened by asymmetric warfare of Islamistic terror networks, the more the threat perception will become multifaceted and chaotic if more actors can acquire WMD. These developments not only diminish the predictability of risks and dangers. The more diffuse and unpredictable the situation and the threat perception, the more difficult it will become to clearly distinguish between external and internal, civilian and military threats to a country, and between the strategic, operational or tactical levels of risks and dangers. More than ever before intelligence is the pre-requisite for all measures that aim at the effective prevention, disruption and suppression of these threats. But countering the pre-eminent threats from multiplying non-state actors that operate clandestinely requires more than just intelligence services. These threats can only be effectively counteracted, disrupted, pre-empted and prevented when the operations of all security sector organisations that are mandated to deal with them are intelligence-driven or intelligence-led. This requires a paradigm shift in national security strategy that not only entails a ‘whole of government’ approach and multilateral engagement, but a radical new approach with more intensive collaboration, interaction and information exchange by these organisations with the agencies of the intelligence community. This paper (1) sketches the main threats currently confronting all states. Part (2) elaborates what intelligence is and explains why intelligence is key to counter the expanding array of threats more effectively. Part (3) shows the application of intelligence and the contributions of intelligence-led operations to the fight against the pre-eminent threats. Part (4) explores patterns and problems of intelligence cooperation. In part (5) some of the implications which intelligence-led operations may have for democratic control, supervision, oversight and accountability are indicated. The paper ends with a list of key recommendations. Details: Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), 2009. 134p. Source: Internet Resource: DCAF Occasional Paper – No. 16: Accessed November 15, 2011 at: http://www.dcaf.ch/DCAF-Migration/KMS/Publications/Fighting-the-Pre-eminent-Threats-with-Intelligence-led-Operations Year: 2009 Country: International URL: http://www.dcaf.ch/DCAF-Migration/KMS/Publications/Fighting-the-Pre-eminent-Threats-with-Intelligence-led-Operations Shelf Number: 123349 Keywords: Intelligence GatheringOrganized CrimeTerrorismWeapons of Mass Destruction |
Author: Farah, Douglas Title: Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Criminalized States in Latin America: An Emerging Tier-One National Security Priority Summary: The emergence of new hybrid (state and nonstate) transnational criminal/terrorist franchises in Latin America operating under broad state protection now pose a tier-one security threat for the United States. Similar hybrid franchise models are developing in other parts of the world, which makes the understanding of these new dynamics an important factor in a broader national security context. This threat goes well beyond the traditional nonstate theory of constraints activity, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, into the potential for trafficking related to weapons of mass destruction by designated terrorist organizations and their sponsors. These activities are carried out with the support of regional and extra-regional state actors whose leadership is deeply enmeshed in criminal activity, which yields billions of dollars in illicit revenues every year. These same leaders have a publicly articulated, common doctrine of asymmetrical warfare against the United States and its allies that explicitly endorses as legitimate the use of weapons of mass destruction. The central binding element in this alliance is a hatred for the West, particularly the United States, and deep anti-Semitism, based on a shared view that the 1979 Iranian Revolution was a transformative historical event. For Islamists, it is evidence of divine favor; and for Bolivarians, a model of a successful asymmetrical strategy to defeat the “Empire.” The primary architect of this theology/ideology that merges radical Islam and radical, anti-Western populism and revolutionary zeal is the convicted terrorist Ilich Sánchez Ramirez, better known as “Carlos the Jackal,” whom Chávez has called a true visionary. Details: Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College, 2012. 95p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 5, 2012 at: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1117 Year: 2012 Country: Central America URL: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1117 Shelf Number: 126258 Keywords: Criminal NetworksHuman RraffickingMoney LaunderingNational SecurityOrganized Crime (Latin America)TerrorismTransnational CrimeWeapons of Mass Destruction |
Author: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Combating Nuclear Smuggling: Megaports Initiative Faces Funding and Sustainability Challenges Summary: National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) established the Megaports Initiative in 2003 to deter, detect, and interdict nuclear or other radiological materials smuggled through foreign seaports. The Initiative funds the installation of radiation detection equipment at select seaports overseas and trains foreign personnel to use this equipment to scan shipping containers entering and leaving these seaports - regardless of destination. NNSA provides partner countries with maintenance and technical support for about 3 years, after which it transfers the equipment and all related responsibilities to partner countries. GAO was asked to examine (1) the status of the Megaports Initiative and NNSA's plans for completing and sustaining it and (2) the benefits of the Initiative and factors that reduce its effectiveness. GAO analyzed key documents; interviewed agency officials; and visited eight Megaports in five countries, selected on the basis of port size and unique characteristics, among other things. GAO recommends that NNSA take actions, including (1) finalizing its long-term plan for ensuring the sustainability of Megaports operations after NNSA's final transfer of equipment to partner countries and (2) developing and maintaining useful and reliable measures to assess the performance of the Initiative. GAO also recommends that NNSA and DHS jointly assess the extent to which the two Initiatives are effectively coordinating. NNSA and DHS agreed with GAO's recommendations. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2012. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-13-37: Accessed December 7, 2012 at: Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 127143 Keywords: Maritime SecurityNuclear SmugglingNuclear WeaponsPort SecurityWeapons of Mass Destruction |