Posted: February 28th, 2023

HLSC 720-DISCUSSION 6-REPLY 2

The thread must be a minimum of 200-400 words. MINIMUM OF TWO SOURCES BESIDES THE TEXTBOOK. Must cite at least 2 sources in addition to the Bible.

TEXTBOOK: Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781119237785.

***FRANK**

Correlation: The existence of a direct correlation or interconnected nature between terrorism, risk analysis, and risk management, undoubtedly because of past attacks, 9/11 in many instances have been cited as the cataclysm (Bennett, 2018). 9/11, as many people in this class recall, was a devastating and demoralizing day for all Americans, the progressive failure of so many security measures and emergency preparedness principles resulted in thousands of preventable deaths (Harrard, 2019). Geronazzo-Alman et al. (2019) evaluated children who experienced 9/11 firsthand or suffered immediate family member deaths, concluding that grieving, frustration, and depression are still innately tied to the event. Harrard (2019), on the emergency management side, argued that the police/fire/ems employees who unknowingly entered an unstable building on the verge of collapse were clearly American heroes but should have been diverted until more precautions were taken. Opinions on the subject will continue to vary, however, 9/11 lasting effect on American society is the connection between attackers acting as terrorists, risk analysis, and risk management (Bennett, 2018). 

Terrorism and Risk Analysis: Assessing terrorism from a risk analysis perspective is extremely difficult, as the broad and widening capabilities of deviant-minded individuals continue to grow (Bennett, 2018). For example, jihadist extremists, traditionally the culprit for attacks against westernized societies, are modernizing within our technology-based culture by utilizing social media, internet hackers, and advanced weapons of mass destruction (Bindra, 2022). Bindra (2022) highlights how prompting disease hysteria on Twitter, like the recent Covid-19 pandemic, completely shut down American economic channels, security infrastructure advancements, and limited daily police functions. If properly equipped, terrorists could unleash a combination attack against American society through the usage of these items, mimicking the fallout of Covid-19 but with calculatedly incendiary ambitions (Bindra, 2022). The differences in risk analysis between the paralleling attacks are prolific, for instance, examining a physical terrorist attack like 9/11 conjures up notions about security checkpoints in airports and passport identification processes (Harrard, 2019). While on the other hand, the virus attack amplifies infection disease controls and mutual preparedness planning with scientists, two completely types of attacks to analyze (Bindra, 2022).

All-Hazards Perspective: Declaring the short answer to be yes, unquestionably comes with a series of stipulations, variances, and explanations (Bennett, 2018). An all-hazards perspective, generally speaking, is an acceptable ideology upon the initial consideration, weighing multiple attack types, enemies, and capabilities certainly cannot be viewed as negative (Jacobsen, 2020). However, delaying actual progression by overanalyzing unrealistic hypothetical assaults against critical infrastructure and excessively overburdening budgets to plan for such is counterproductive (Jacobsen, 2020). Therefore, the all-hazards ideology is helpful but the potential for regression within the analysis process is inevitable if taken to the extreme, arguing for a realistic, achievable, and affordable derived perspective (Bennett, 2018). Having attached that disclaimer, it would appear prudent, for emergency managers, to at least consider all hazards in the totality of risk analysis, checking a box amongst the lengthy process of adequate terrorism preparedness planning (Jacobsen, 2020).

Combining Terrorism with Other Hazards: Harrard (2019) asserts that a separate but equal mentality should be applied when considering terrorism versus other hazards, like a natural disaster or disease outbreak. The sentiment that either or any of these items can be ignored or displaced is utterly ridiculous, therefore, terrorism, and all competing hazards must be evaluated collectively (Bennett, 2018). For example, intentional attrition attacks, like poisoning food supplies or agroterrorism might not initially be taken as terrorism, causing differing emergency responses more focused on science instead of military premise (Harrard, 2019). The confusion spawned from covert terrorist attacks can result in failed response efforts, contending that any attack, disease, or hazard period should be viewed from every perspective appears logical (Harrard, 2019). Christians have always endured attacks throughout history, appealing to the morals and ethics of people, “Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath” (English Standard Version, 2001/2016 Proverbs 29:8).         

References

Bennett, B. (2018). Understanding, Assessing and Responding to Terrorism. John Wiley & Sons, 

Inc. Hoboken, NJ. 

Bindra, S. (2020). Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism: An Analytical View. World 

Affairs. 26(1).

https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:wa&volume= 26&issue=1&article=001Links to an external site.

English Standard Version. (2016). Bible hub. Retrieved from

https://biblehub.comLinks to an external site.

(Original

work published 2001).

Harrard, J. (2019). Emergency Management Restructured: Intended and Unintended Outcomes

of Actions Taken Since 9/11. Emergency Management.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429425059-6Links to an external site.

Geronazzo-Alman, L., Fan, B., Duarte, C., Layne, C., Wicks, J., Guffanti, G., Musa, G., &

Hoven, C. (2019). The Distinctness of Grief, Depression, and Posttraumatic Stress: Lessons from Children After 9/11. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 58(10).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.12.012Links to an external site.

Jacobsen, K. (2020). Will Covid-19 Generate Global Preparedness? The Lancet. 395(10229).

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30559-6Links to an external site.