A Call from the Top to Rethink Homeland Security

By Todd Rosenblum

Todd M. Rosenblum served as President Obama’s Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs at the Pentagon, as well as Deputy Under Secretary of Intelligence for Plans, Policy, and Performance Management at the Department of Homeland Security. Over the course of a 27-year career, Rosenblum held positions with the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Department of State, and began his professional career as an Intelligence Officer in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen delivered strategic remarks last week at The George Washington University.  Her remarks, titled “Rethinking Homeland Security in an Age of Disruption,” offered candor and significant departure from DHS’ traditional priorities.  This could represent major change for DHS roles and missions, both inside the Department and its relationship with others in the interagency, should much of what the Secretary said, be put into practice.

Most dramatically, the Secretary ordered a shift from a “counter-terrorism posture at DHS to a wider counter-threat posture to make sure we are doing everything possible to guard against nation-state interference.”  She also said cyber-attacks now exceed the risk of physical attacks to the homeland.  This is a profound change in focus for a Department set up in 2003 to better protect the homeland from foreign-inspired terrorism.  It represents a change in DHS’ statutory mission that Congress will almost certainly want to review.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+


Related Articles

Search

Close