How Safe Are We?
Homeland Security Since 9/11
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano offers an insightful analysis of American security at home and a prescription for the future.
Created in the wake of the greatest tragedy to occur on U.S. soil, the Department of Homeland Security was handed a sweeping mandate: make America safer. It would encompass intelligence and law enforcement agencies, oversee natural disasters, commercial aviation, border security and ICE, cybersecurity, and terrorism, among others. From 2009-2013, Janet Napolitano ran DHS and oversaw 22 federal agencies with 230,000 employees.
In How Safe Are We?, Napolitano pulls no punches, reckoning with the critics who call it Frankenstein's Monster of government run amok, and taking a hard look at the challenges we'll be facing in the future. But ultimately, she argues that the huge, multifaceted department is vital to our nation's security. An agency that's part terrorism prevention, part intelligence agency, part law enforcement, public safety, disaster recovery make for an odd combination the protocol-driven, tradition-bound Washington D.C. culture. But, she says, it has made us more safe, secure, and resilient.
Napolitano not only answers the titular question, but grapples with how these security efforts have changed our country and society. Where are the failures that leave us vulnerable and what has our 1 trillion dollar investment yielded over the last 15 years? And why haven't we had another massive terrorist attack in the U.S. since September 11th, 2001? In our current political climate, where Donald Trump has politicized nearly every aspect of the department, Napolitano's clarifying, bold vision is needed now more than ever.
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Napolitano, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, looks back at her career and cogently assesses the department's strengths and weaknesses. She talks briefly about her early life and professions before her time at DHS and about the challenges she faced as Obama's point person for homeland security. She is proud of her work, acknowledging accomplishments in "What We Got Right" (for example, the risk-based passenger screening programs that evolved into TSA PreCheck), and honestly considering "Where We Need to Improve," such as the vulnerabilities to voting technology and social media that became apparent after the 2016 election. Both sections give insight into how DHS works to protect the nation's borders and respond to disasters. Napolitano saves her sharpest criticism for the Trump administration, arguing repeatedly that "some vulnerabilities are more perceived than real," including "the persistent political hysteria over the security of the U.S. border with Mexico," and calling the family separation policy "government malpractice." She recommends that DHS instead focus on cyberterrorism and "the biggest and most irreversible risk of all, climate change." This valuable work should appeal to readers with cool heads about national security, who will appreciate Napolitano's suggestion to evaluate risk based on data rather than rhetoric.
