The Whitehouse has published an overview of America's national strategy for homeland security which provides a detailed road map for reaching homeland security goals. The ‘National Strategy for Homeland Security’ includes the following sections:

I. Overview of America's National Strategy for Homeland Security
II. Today's Realities in Homeland Security
III. Today's Threat Environment
IV. Our Vision and Strategy for Homeland Security
V. Prevent and Disrupt Terrorist Attacks
VI. Protect the American People, Critical Infrastructure, and Key Resources
VII. Respond to and Recover from Incidents
VIII. Ensuring Long-Term Success
IX. Conclusion

The National Strategy for Homeland Security includes an overview of operational resilience goals which sets out targets for continuity of operations and continuity of government planning, as well as encouraging and promoting business continuity within both the public and private sector business continuity. The sub-section on this reads as follows (verbatim):

Ensuring operational resilience
Mitigating the vulnerability of government and private sector operations to man-made or natural disasters depends not only on the structural resilience of our assets, systems, and networks but also on operational resilience. First, we will continue to maintain comprehensive and effective continuity programs, including those that integrate continuity of operations and continuity of government programs, to ensure the preservation of our government under the Constitution and the continuing performance of national essential functions – those government roles that are necessary to lead and sustain the Nation during and following a catastrophic emergency. A national approach to continuity also requires that State, local, and Tribal governments work to ensure that they are able to maintain or rapidly resume effective functioning during and after catastrophic incidents and are able to interact effectively with each other and the Federal Government. Likewise, we strongly encourage the private sector to conduct business continuity planning that recognizes interdependencies and complements governmental efforts – doing so not only helps secure the United States, but also makes good long-term business sense for individual companies. Such integrated and comprehensive planning is essential to protecting and preserving lives and livelihoods and maintaining our robust economy during crises.

Go to The National Strategy for Homeland Security index page.

•Date: 11th October 2007• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Emergency planning
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