National Preparedness Report

DHS and the NPR

The National Preparedness Report was structured in a strategic manner by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). There was a great deal of scrutiny and assessment which occurred when this report was put together as much of it represented the most recent work of DHS, their theories, objectives and recent discoveries. Thus, the structure of the report was incredibly important.

One aspect of the report appears to be structured around optimism. For instance, planning is a big aspect of where the attention of the report goes. The report indeed spends time looking at ways in which the foundation of the nation could be made stronger, particularly in emergencies and in ways to better enmesh the scaffolding which is in place so that its more comprehensive. This section of the report also discusses the partnerships present for finishing the National Planning Frameworks across the preparedness mission arenas (fema.gov, 2013).

The report is further structured by focusing on the action of operational coordination, giving this topic its own section. "The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a common doctrine for incident management, allowing the whole community to use shared language and principles. Nationwide adoption of NIMS increased in 2012, with an additional 900,000 completions of introductory NIMS and Incident Command System courses. Furthermore, federal agencies continue to implement NIMS to manage incidents and report having the operational capability to meet the Goal" (fema.gov, 2013).

The optimistic/positive section of this report is indeed very comprehensive and explains how the DHS has evolved in its capabilities and talents with intelligence and information sharing. The vast array of interconnected fusion centers in conjunction with the Terrorism task forces demonstrate continually how they are able to develop (fema.gov, 2013). More innovative national strategies have been created so that the government can offer a more codified approach to oversee the implementation of further cells of these entities. Within this section, the NPR explores how various forms of operational communications have begun to thrive, as various states and other regions have created state emergency communications plans and how many of these plans represent concrete structures and organized intentions that the government can readily work with (fema.gov, 2013). The report also designates a section which explores how the government is harnessing advanced technology in order to cushion emergency communications, such as fostering the transformation of nationwide public safety broadband systems (fema.gov, 2013).

The NPR does have sections which are dedicated to the areas which need improvement. For example, cyber-securtiy is something that the DHS has made massive strives in however some serious challenges remain: "Enhancing the resilience of infrastructure systems and maturing the role of public-private partnerships are newly identified national areas for improvement" (fema.gov, 2013). Such changes truly are essential if the nation expects to reach a higher level of preparedness in order to protect not only their citizens but all private information.

Another section of the report zeroes in on the central factors that are necessary for the nation to achieve and meet in order for it to become more nationally prepared and to decide where the preparedness gaps still exist. Part of these determinations it was found were based on the 31 core capabilities so that all community partners can inform program priorities (fema, gov, 2013).

The Presidential Policy Directive 8 (PPD8) has several monumental tasks, and with all of them, they're all still a "work in progress." Some of the goals of PPD8 involve national preparedness, building and sustaining it, and fostering federal inter-agencies. Some of the core capabilities outline in PPD8 means that it will take forever (if not a lifetime) to achieve them. For instance, the goal of long-term vulnerability reduction in the mitigation area, if focused on creating and sustaining "resilient systems, communities, and critical infrastructure and key resources lifelines so as to reduce their vulnerability to natural, technological, and human-caused incidents by lessening the likelihood, severity, and duration of the adverse consequences related to these incidents" (fema.gov/31, 2013). This is clearly an objective that will take a sizeable amount of time to achieve. Essentially this goal explains that it wishes to make life easier for all those involved in a catastrophe, individually and collectively.