The President Has No Clothes: The Case for Broader Application of Red Teaming within Homeland Security
Abstract
Missing in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) current gap and vulnerability analysis approach to Red Teaming is the employment of broader decision support Red Teaming, which would provide a strategic assessment tool that assists the organization in overcoming group think and a lack of organizational creativity, while avoiding mirror imaging. By broadening its use of Red Teaming, DHS will improve its decision-making processes across all levels of homeland security. This research uses the case study method to identify and challenge assumptions inherent within the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) security system. Combined with evidence and analysis from historical examples, this effort is designed to determine whether decision makers can benefit from Red Teams and Red Team fundamental concepts, and whether these concepts will be effective in assisting DHS and its partners in making better decisions. America's homeland security system is hampered by bureaucratic challenges. The U.S. Government must dramatically re-orient itself. America needs to change its homeland security approach into a flexible, adaptive system. Understanding the U.S. layers of security, and how they interact to defeat the terrorist threat, is as critical as understanding "Red" -- what our enemies are doing. Trained Red Teams apply creative thinking, and Red Team fundamentals challenge the organization's assumptions, provide alternative analysis to the organization's plans, and give the decision maker alternative perspectives on the current operating environment. Education on Red Team Fundamentals should be mandatory for all homeland security leaders. DHS should implement decision support Red Teams as part of its force structure; implement joint enterprise Red Teams among its own agencies and between DHS and other security agencies, entities, and partners; and implement Red Team integration into the homeland security technology approval process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA524738
Entities
People
- A. B. Nettles
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School