The DoD Role in Homeland Security: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Abstract : Defining strategic roles is critical to the Department of Defense (DoD). As combat engagements conclude, defense spending reduces, and force structure rebalances occur, the DoD role in homeland security will correspondingly change. This paper analyzes the DoD role in homeland security of the past, present, and future. Roles are examined through salient policy and strategy benchmarks that predate the modern Homeland Security lexicon. Dominant components in elements of national power since World War One correlate influential National Security Strategy issues to National Defense Strategy change. Baseline homeland security expectations set in 2002 are examined to evaluate how well issues were defined and supported in the last decade. The DoD role in the next decade is postulated through the prism of the current National Security Strategy 2010 and Defense Strategic Guidance 2012. Symbiotic relationships between Homeland Defense and Homeland Security will continue to advance the DoD strategy well beyond original notions of homeland security as a state response only. New DoD strategies will merge Homeland Defense and Homeland Security roles to sustain combat readiness gained in the last decade.