Managing Homeland Security: PUAD 637 Department of Public and International Affairs Fall Semester 2011 Instructor: Professor Conant Phone: (703)-993-1416 Office: Robinson A221 email: jconant@gmu.edu Office Hours: Tue. 6:00-7:00 Mailbox: Robinson A201 Wed. 11:00 to 12:00, or by Appointment Course Purpose and Organization: The primary purpose of this class is to give graduate students an opportunity to examine the U. S. government s efforts to protect the U. S. Homeland from terrorist attacks. We employ a variety of models (policy, organizational, and management) as key tools for our investigation. In fact, we will begin the class with a review of (or, for those of you who did not encounter these models in PUAD 502, PUAD 620, or PUAD 640, an introduction to) some of those models. Then, we will focus on: 1) the U.S. government s failure to protect its citizens from the attacks on September 11, 2001, 2) identification of the causes of that failure, and 3) proposed remedies for fixing the policy, organizational, and management problems that allowed the terrorists to break through on 9/11. In the third part of the class, we will shift our focus to policy development in the aftermath of 9/11, with special attention given to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 (ATSA) and the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (HSA). In particular we will examine the goals and requirements established in those two pieces of the legislation, which included the creation of the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. We will then shift our focus to the management of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and management of its principal agencies. In doing so, we will examine the management of DHS from both topdown and bottom-up perspectives. Additionally, we will focus on leadership, structure, strategy, resources, and front line operations. In the final segments of the class, will examine the challenges associated with coordinating the activities of the principal agencies within DHS (intradepartmental management), the challenges associated with coordinating DHS activities and the activities of other U.S. departments and agencies (interdepartmental management), and the challenges associated with coordinating DHS activities and the activities of state governments, local governments, public authorities, etc. that are assigned key roles in protecting the homeland (intergovernmental management). Course Pedagogy Since this is a graduate course, most class sessions will be conducted in a discussion mode. Course readings will serve as the basis for discussion; students are expected to complete required readings for each class session. Class sessions will also include minilectures provided by the instructor. The instructor may invite other faculty or DHS professionals to give guest presentations on topics we are studying.
Course Work and Grades: The work for this course includes an analytic paper, in which you apply two or three policy, organization, or management models to required readings for class session number four or number five. The format for this paper will be provided in class. The final paper will be a similar exercise, but will cover required readings for class sessions six through fourteen. The final paper is due on Dec. 13, 2011. Analytic Paper Final Paper Class Disc. Total 30% 50% 20% 100% Grade Scale:100-92 = A; 91-90=A-; 89-88= B+; 87-82=B; 81-80=B-; < 80=C; < 70=F Late Papers: All written assignments must be submitted at the beginning of the class period on which they are due. A one-grade penalty will be applied to a paper that is one to three days late; a two-grade penalty will be applied for three to seven days. Incompletes for the course are discouraged, but extraordinary circumstances can be accommodated. Requests for an incomplete must be submitted in writing at the earliest possible date. Other Key Information Honor Code: George Mason University has an Honor Code, which requires all members of this community to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity. Cheating, plagiarism, lying, and stealing are all prohibited. All violations of the Honor Code will be reported to the Honor Committee. See honorcode.gmu for more detailed information. The core presumption of the code is that all written work is your own work. Proper citation of material taken from other published work is required. Disability: If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability Resources at 703-993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through that office. Enrollment Status: All students are responsible for verifying their enrollment in this class. Schedule adjustments should be made by the deadlines published in the Schedule of Classes. The last day to add a course is September 6, 2011. The last day to drop a course is September 30, 2011. After the last day to drop a class, withdrawing from this class requires the approval of the dean and is only allowed for nonacademic reasons. Required Readings Available for Purchase at the GMU Bookstore: 1. Reading packet (only available at the GMU Bookstore-Fairfax Campus) 2. David Halberstam, Firehouse (2002) 3. Strasser, ed., The 9/11 Investigations (2003) 4. Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Terrorist Travel 2
5. The National Commission on Terrorists Attacks Upon the United States: The 9/11 Commission Report (2004) 6. Donald Kettl, System Under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics, 2nd ed. (2006) 7. Charles P. Nemeth, Homeland Security: An Introduction to Principles and Practices (2010) 8. James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy (2000) 9. Stephen Flynn, America the Vulnerable (2004) I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1. Politics, Policy, and Administration in the U.S. Governmental System (Aug. 29) Topics: MPA mission statement and mission of this course; Emergency Management and Homeland Security Concentration and Certificate; Institutions of American government: powers, functions, processes, and people; state and local governments: powers, functions, processes and people; federalism, intergovernmental relations (IGR); Politics: definitions and types; Policy: statutory law and administrative rules; Management/Administration: constraints and resources. MPA web site U.S. Constitution (available on the web) U.S. Code (Structure of the Code available on the web) Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations (Structure and Contents-available on the web) 2. Policy Models, Organization Theories, and Management Models (Sept. 6) Topics: Policy-making as a rational-problem solving process; policy-making as a political process; alternative policy models Administration as a rational-legal-goal oriented process; administration as a political process; alternative management models Public organizations as interest driven entities; administration in different types of public organizations Management skills, organization theory, and content knowledge of organizations Required Readings: Charles Lindblom, The Science of Muddling Through, Public Administration Review, Vol. 19 No. 2 (Spring 1959) pp. 79-88. (GMU library e-journal-pdf version is printable) Norton Long, Power and Administration, Public Administration Review, Vol. 9 No 4 (Autumn, 1949) pp. 257-264. (GMU library e-journal-pdf version is printable) 3
James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy Chapt. 5 Interests Robert Katz, Skills of an Effective Administrator, Harvard Business Review, Sept/Oct74, Vol. 52 Issue 5, pp. 90-100. (GMU library e-journal-pdf version is printable) 3. Policy Models, Organization Theories, and Management Models (Sept. 13) Topics: Organizations as rational-legal systems; alternative models Organizational structure, function, and reorganization; alternative models Management functions, processes, and roles; alternative models Executives in public organizations: turf and strategies; context of public management Max Weber, Bureaucracy (e-reserve or web) Luther Gulick, Notes on a Theory of Organization (e-reserve or web) James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapters 10 and 11 and Chapters 13-15 Recommended Reading: James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapters 1-4 and Chapters 6-9 Anthony Downs, The Life Cycle of Bureaus (e-reserve or web) II. THE 9/11 TERRORIST ATTACKS & POST-9/11 INVESTIGATION 4. The Al Qaeda Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001 (Sept. 20) Topics: national crisis management, on the Front Lines at the N.Y. World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, comparing the two catastrophes and local governments responses to them, local governments, public service, firefighters, police officers, emergency response and the importance of preparedness, federalism, terrorism, and the challenge of emergency management The 9/11 Commission Report, Chapt. 1, We Have Some Planes Halberstam, David, Firehouse (2002) The 9/11 Commission Report, Chapt. 9 "Heroism and Horror" (NYC pp. 278-311; Pentagon pp. 311-315; Analysis pp. 315-323) Recommended Reading: Benson, Bruce, "Preparing for the Improbable and Unpredictable: The Arlington County Police Department's Response to the 9/11 Terrorist Attack on the Pentagon" (2004) 4
5. Identifying the Causes of Failure on 9/11 and Fixing the Problems (Sept. 27) Topics: documenting and explaining why the U.S. government failed to protect its citizens; immigration, visas, and intelligence failures; the aviation security system on 9/11 and the defects in that system; the rise and early terrorist attacks of Al Qaeda; institutional, organizational, and system failures; developing a response and fixing institutional, organizational, system and management problems Required Readings: Strasser, ed., The 9/11 Investigations: Introduction and Staff Statements 1-4 National Commission on Terrorists Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, Chapters 2-4, and Chapters 10-13. III. U.S. GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO THE 9/11 ATTACKS 6. Creating a New Aviation Security System and a New Agency (TSA) (Oct. 4) Topics: documenting aviation security system problems before 9/11; responses to those problems; problem definition after 9/11 and the partisan struggle over the passage of the ATSA, designing and building a new aviation security system; designing and building a new agency (TSA); financing the new aviation system; airline association s responses to the passenger security fee and the aviation security infrastructure fee Nov. 19, 2001, Aviation and Transportation Security Act (web) Shugrue, Laura, "Personnel Policy and Staffing at TSA" (packet) Sessa, Joe, "TSA Screener Workforce" (packet) Conrad, Richard, "The Ongoing Implementation of the Aviation Security Infrastructure Fee" (packet) Recommended Reading: Steven Brill, After (2003) 7. Creating the Department of Homeland Security (Oct. 18) Topics: executive branch structure in 2001; national security and homeland security; coordination as a key problem for discussion in the academic literature and a key problem for administrative activity; problem definition, agenda setting, and executive response to the public airing of the FBI s problems, and the legislative process; publication of the Homeland Security Strategy (July 2002), the partisan struggle over the creation of DHS; partisan uses of patriotism and traitors in the Nov. 2002 elections, the wisdom of executive branch reorganization in a time of war; the principal units of Homeland Security (see organization table), the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies escape the reorganization; 5
Kettl, System Under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics, Chapters 1 4 The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (web) IV. MANAGING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) 8. A Top-Down Perspective: the DHS Secretary and the Secretariat (Oct. 25) Topics: selection, nomination and confirmation of cabinet secretaries and political appointees; senior executives; employees; establishing the mission and building the new department, assessing organizational structure, reorganizing DHS, developing a new strategy, developing a new culture, responding to overseers and oversight investigators (congress, the president, the OIG, GAO, the media, etc.) Nemeth, Homeland Security, Chapt. 2 Chertoff letter of Congressman Peter King (e-reserve) Balunis and Hemphill, Escaping the Entanglement: Reversing Jurisdictional Fragmentation over the Department of Homeland Security, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Volume 6, Issue 1, Article 58, 2009, pp. 1-18 (GMU Library e-journal connection) 9. Regulations, Budgeting, Risk Management, Intergovernmental Relations, and the Courts (Nov. 1) Topics: regulation; budgeting; risk management; intergovernmental relations; the courts; progress and regress in protecting the homeland Nemeth, Chapters 3, 4, & 6 Kettl, System Under Stress, Chapters 5 7 V. MANAGING AGENCIES IN DHS 10. Transportation Security Administration (Nov. 8) Topics: leadership, mission, structure, resources, and operations; the role of the chief financial officer, the budget office, the office of revenue, the office of financial management, and the office of administration; aviation security operations; relationships with congress and appropriations for aviation security; interest group responses to the passenger security fee; transit security in a decentralized system 6
Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 344-354, and pp. 375-384 Conant, James K., "Appropriating for Transportation Security" (packet) Fudge, Josh, "Taxes Imposed on Air Carriers" (packet) Josh Fudge, Protecting Transit Systems from Terror (packet) 11. Customs and Border Protection (Nov. 15) Topics: the Customs Service before 9/11; the Border Patrol before 9/11; the challenges associated with merging different structures, leaders, professionals, and operations after the 2002 DHS reorganization; current structures, leaders, professionals, operations, and challenges Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 313-329 Customs and Border web site James Q Wilson, Bureaucracy 12. Customs and Immigration Services (Nov. 22) Topics: Customs and Immigration before 9/11; post-9/11 structure; resources; executives; managers; professionals; culture, front-line operations; and challenges Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 330-339 Customs and Immigration web site James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy VI. DHS INTERORGANIZATIONAL & INTERGOVERNMENTAL MANAGEMENT 13. Linking DHS, the Departments of State & Defense, the Intelligence Agencies (Nov. 29) Topics: terrorist travel before 9/11; immigration legislation; administration of immigration laws; evolution of immigration law, and administration; the development and coordination of intelligence; working with state and local governments Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Terrorist Travel, Chapters 1-6 Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 230-247 and Chapter 8 Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 214-229 7
VII. DHS ITRAORGANIZATIONAL and INTERORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT 14. Ports and Border Protection: Seaports and Airports (Dec. 6) Topics: anti-terrorist agencies and coordination of activities; seaports, cargo, international trade, and the movement of weapons; the role of TSA and the Coast Guard in port protection; ports at international airports; evolving terrorist tactics; Boston Logan as a model for aviation security Montaigne, Fen, Policing America s Ports, Smithsonian, Jan. 2004 Nemeth, Homeland Security, pp. 356-367 Bettancourt, Laura, Chris Daly, and Paige Hess, "Dulles Case Study" (reading packet) Stephen Flynn, America the Vulnerable ** Questions Distributed for Final Paper: Method/Process and Topics: Use Policy Models, Organizational Models, and Management Models to Describe, Explain, and Critique Homeland Security Policy, Organization, Management, Front-line operations, and Current and Future Challenges Final Papers are Due on Dec. 13 at 7:30 PM. Please submit your exam electronically via email. I will confirm receipt of the exam. 8