Is the System Under Stress? Book Review of Kettls Homeland Security and American Politics

Introduction

This review covers Kettls (2007) System Under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics, published by CQ Press in Washington, D.C. (pp. 151). The book is relevant because it addresses the need to assess the status of the Department of Homeland Security in light of the various stresses it encounters. It frames that discussion within the scope of 9/11 and the disaster of Hurricane Katrina by asking what happened and why it happened that the government apparently failed to protect its citizens. Ultimately it asks what questions have been learned from these disasters and what has not been learned well enough.

The author states in his Preface that from 2002-2003 he worked with the Century Foundation as executive director of its Project on Federalism and Homeland Security (p. x). His background on Homeland Security issues is mainly from an academic perspective, but the background to the book is actually situated in cardiology, and the author explains that a stress test in cardiology is used to tell how well the heart works. The purpose of Kettls (2007) book is to examine how well the nations defenses are working. The 2007 edition is the second edition of the book, which was re-written in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The book is intended for students of American government, public policy and public administration, intergovernmental relations, and homeland security, so as to communicate to them the conundrum of managing a complex system like Homeland Security and responses to disasters. The historical context shaping the work is thus that of disasternamely, the 9/11 terror attacks and the organizational failure of Homeland Security and FEMA to respond appropriately to Katrina. The school represented by the work is that of the Century Foundation, which, according to the author, helped to shape its outcome. The scope of the work includes an assessment of the impact of 9/11 on the nation and the response of the nations leaders; the system-wide breakdowns that allowed the attacks and what holes were plugged within the intelligence community to ensure they would not happen again; the problems of federal bureaucracy that made coordination fail at Katrina; the political systems attempt to prevent disasters that can never be fully eliminated in terms of risk; the tension between security and the sacrificing of civil liberties; and, finally, how the political system can respond to such crushing strain (p. ix). This scope is somewhat large for the scant 150 pages the text occupies. Nonetheless, the authors approach is relatively exploratory, and the aim is to raise questions more than it is to answer them.

Description

Overview

One of the keys to understanding this work is the role that leadership plays in homeland security and in the coordination of the various programs and offices that now must collaborate under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Kettl (2007) highlights, for instance, the role that US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen played in the disaster response at New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. Allen helped to coordinate personnel at the local, state and federal levels, when other leaders were hopelessly failing to take coordinated action. It is this type of leadership that has to be cultivated in order to establish homeland security. Without such leadership, the bureaucratic nature of federal government threatens to serve as an obstacle to the aim of security. Political leaders should be aware of that need and should facilitate rather than frustrate leadership development and the appropriate placement of command.

Method, Assumptions and Thesis

The author uses popular sources such as CNN and the Boston Globe for data collection purposes as well as White House press releases, scholarly articles, white papers, RAND publications, the US General Accounting Office, the 9/11 Report, Congressional documents, testimonies, transcripts of speeches, and reporters such as Seymour Hersh to explore the world and the problems of Homeland Security. Because the nature of the work is exploratory, there is no substantial thesis stated at the outset; rather, the work drives toward a broader question at its conclusion, based upon the evidence presented. That question is: how does the American political system respond to the stresses facing homeland security?

Structure of the Book

The book is structured around seven chapters. The first chapter sets the stage for the examination of the problems of homeland security by looking specifically at 9/11 and its ramifications. The second chapter looks at failures in the system and what steps have been taken to address them. The third chapter looks at the problem of coordination...

What the Book Does Not Do Well

What the book does not do well is to probe the possible alternative explanations for why 9/11 happened and why the disaster at Katrina occurred as it did. While official explanations are accepted, there are many problems with that narrative that are not explored in detail. This is not to say the author should have adopted a more conspiratorial tone, but the fact that other authors have probed deeply into these matters and have arrived at far graver problems within the American political system makes this work seem somewhat underwhelming. For instance, Peter Dale Scott, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has written a much richer critique of American policy and the political system in The Road to 9/11 as well as other works. Kettl (2007) is looking specifically at the issue of homeland security, but when one steps back and looks at how the Department of Homeland Security emerged from the ashes of 9/11 to serve as a kind of solution to the unaddressed problems that led to 9/11 one begins to understand why a much more serious and profound discussion is needed.

Overall Significance

Overall, Kettles book does raise significant questions and can serve as a decent primer on the subject of homeland security and the problems surrounding it in the US political system. It is not a bad introduction to some of the deeper problems underlying the American system. It might prompt one to engage in more investigation, which should be conducted by adult learners and students of modern politics. The book is also hopeful in the sense that it does point to one condition that, if met, might help to address some of the more immediate issues in homeland securitynamely, the issue of leadership. Kettl (2007) highlights the importance of strong leadership in these trying times and emphasizes this point throughout the work. However, considering the ramifications of what other scholars have uncovered regarding the political system (specifically Scott, for instance), it stands to reason that leadership itself will only be sufficient to prevent the entire edifice from collapsing all at once. The system as it currently sits today has been designed by policy makers behind the scenesand they are a threat that needs to be more…