Free Essay on Terrorism and Homeland Security: Future Prospects

The prospect of terrorism might increase to be more organized and more violent. The escalation of religious terrorism seems to be almost inevitable. For instance, al-Qaeda has evolved its radical movement to form more terror groups in nearly 70 countries (Ilyas, 2014). Al-Qaeda's cyberspace presence increases the chances to exploit its jihadist beliefs to recruit more insurgents. Besides, it has survived numerous attempts by the western countries to disintegrate its operation by re-inventing its strategies to counter the excessive military force. The proliferation of the ISIS and Al-Shabaab exemplifies the likelihood of more violent and organized terror attacks being executed (Mizrahi, 2014). Terrorism will exploit the opinionated religious beliefs to evolve towards a full-grown insurgency.

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Terrorists can use a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) if they get access to any chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRNE) weapons. The terrorists have expressed their intention to execute the most significant contemporary terror attack that will inflict massive social disruption, catastrophic causalities, and disrupt the economy. Additionally, there are suppositions that al-Qaeda has been attempting to acquire nuclear warfare weapons (The U.S. State Department, 2016). Nonetheless, it is relatively easier for terrorists to obtain chemical weapons through state sponsorship or theft. Some of the politically unstable countries such as North Korea, Libya, Iraq, and Syria are the most vulnerable targets by terrorists want to acquire the chemical weapons stockpiles (Ackerman & Jacome, 2018). Small-to-medium scale chemical weapons is the most probable WMD the jihadists might opt to use since they do not require advanced-level skills to produce.

Homeland Security and counterterrorism are two distinct concepts even though the two are often conflated and intertwined. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was founded after the tragic 9/11 terror attack. About 22 agencies were combined to form the DHS that seeks to protect Americans (Wein, 2019). However, counterterrorism missions are usually conducted overseas through a collaboration between the European intelligence agencies and the U.S military. Some of the prominent counterterrorism missions have been executed in Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (Wein, 2019). Despite the connection between some of the Homeland Security and counterterrorism missions, they are different. If the counterterrorism and Homeland Security missions are merged, they will be muddled, and their respective objectives might not be achieved.

References

Ackerman, G., & Jacome, M. (2018). WMD terrorism: The once and future threat. Retrieved from cco.ndu.edu/News/Article/1507339/wmd-terrorism-the-once-and-future-threat/

Ilyas, M. (2014). Human bombing - A religious act. Journal of Terrorism Research, 5(3). doi: 10.15664/jtr.944

Mizrahi, S. (2014). Terrorism and homeland security. Security Journal, 28(3), 322-325. doi: 10.1057/sj.2012.40

The U.S. State Department. (2016). Chapter 4: The global challenge of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) terrorism. Retrieved from www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2016/272236.htm

Wein, M. (2019). Counterterrorism and Homeland Security are not the same thing - Just security. Retrieved from www.justsecurity.org/62776/counterterrorism-homeland-security/