Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Psychological impact of terrorism

· Personal Essays

Addressing the issue of terrorism is a responsibility of all branches of the government. Within every governmental organization, there are either bureaus or directorates in charge of counterterrorism at some level. Two of the departments within the government that focus directly on counterterrorism is the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State. They both have their own areas of focus and in some instances they overlap. However, both of them are essential to the security and safety of the United States.

Department of State: Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism

The Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism (CT-CVE) forges partnerships with everyone from foreign governments to non-state actors to advance the counterterrorism objectives and national security (U.S. Department of State, n.d.). The CT-CVE takes the leading role in creating strategies to defeat terrorists abroad within the United States government counterterrorism team. They also lead the Department of State in addressing the evolving threats as well as securing the counterterrorism cooperation of international partners The CT-CVE used to be known as the Office for Combating Terrorism in 1972. It was created in response to the terrorist attacks at the Munich Olympics by President Nixon after a group of Palestinian terrorist, known as Black September, took 11 members of the Israeli Olympics team hostage (U.S. Department of State, n.d.).

In 1985, the name was changed to Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism before becoming the Bureau of Counterterrorism in 2012 Just this year, the Department of State added Countering Violent Extremism to focus on how important the role of non-military programs is in eliminating the root causes of terrorism. Some of the goals of the Bureau of Counterterrorism is to strengthen counterterrorism diplomacy, counter violent extremism, strengthen homeland security, and develop and implement counterterrorism strategies, policies, and operations. Despite how long they have been around, there is little to no public opinion about the CT-CVE. Analyzing the Department of State as a whole would be outside of the scope of counterterrorism since they are responsible for a lot more than counterterrorism.

Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was founded post 9/11, in 2003 under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Borum, 2004, p. 438). It was created to handle issue related to immigration and other security-related matters. The DHS is responsible for keeping America’s borders security, prevent terrorism, and respond to threats to the nation.

The DHS prevents terrorism by working with other federal organizations as well as local and state entities. Some of the policies that they have pushed includes using REAL ID for secure driver’s licenses. The rationale for this is to inhibit terrorists’ abilities to circumvent detection by using fraudulent IDs (Department of Homeland Security, n.d.). They have also created a number of public service announcements such as “If you see something, say something”, which aims to get the public involved in combating terrorism by being more aware of their surroundings. The DHS also provides early detection of bioterrorist attacks and security for chemicals that could be used to commit bioterrorist attacks (Department of Homeland Security, n.d.).

A Gallup Poll indicated that only 13% of Americans feel a lot safer with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security; almost half feel a little safer, and 39% do not feel any safer at all (Carlson, 2002). Most Americans around the time of their creation did not feel convinced that the new department would be that effective. Part of this may stem from the fact that the United States was just attacked by an unknown enemy that they have never engaged or fought before. It didn’t come from a nation-state or any other known entity. This was a different type of fight and they were able to kill more people in a single day of terrorism than any previously held record. However, a little over 10 years later, about 66% of Americans have a favorable view of Homeland Security according to the Pew Research Center (Drake, 2013). There have been no significant major attacks like that of September 11^(th) and news of thwarted attacks make people feel safe.

References

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