Terror, security, and money: balancing the risks, benefits, and costs of homeland security

In Terrorism, Security, and Money, John Mueller, one of America's most trenchant critics of America's drive for enhanced security at all costs, teams up with Mark Stewart, a civil engineering professor and recognized authority on risk assessment for the built infrastructure, to put forth a more rational and cost-effective approach to managing domestic security. Instead of offering a critical account of the situation we're in, Mueller and Stewart instead focus onprovidingsolutions based on the risk assessment science. After cataloguing the mistakes that the US has made (and continues to make), like spending wildly on ill-considered plans to mitigate unlikely threats, they offer tools-based probabilistic risk assessment that have the potential to redirect our efforts toward amore productive--and far more cost-effective--course. In the years following 9/11, the United States spent billions and billons on powerful surveillance and security systems and created a massive new government agency, the Departmentof Homeland Security. John Mueller, one of America's most trenchant critics of America's drive for enhanced security at all costs, has argued that while these measures have largely been unnecessary, the public succumbed to an alarmist media and a shrewd governmental scare campaign and came to supportthese measures. The price, Mueller has contended, has been a massive misallocation of resources. In previous books, Mueller focused on why national security threats are 'overblown,' but in Terrorism, Security, and Money, he teams up with Mark Stewart, a civil engineering professor and recognizedauthority on risk assessment for the built infrastructure, to put forth a more rational and cost-effective approach to managing domestic security. Insteadof offering a critical account of the situation we're in, Mueller and Stewartinstead focus on providing solutions based on the risk assessment science. After cataloguing the mistakes that the US has made (and continues to make), like spending wildly on ill-considered plans to mitigate unlikely threats, they offer tools-based probabilisticrisk assessment that have the potential to redirect our efforts toward a moreproductive--and far more cost-effective--course. PrefaceChapter 1: Assessing RiskChapter 2: Terrorism as a Hazard to Human LifeChapter 3: The Full Costs of TerrorismChapter 4: Evaluating Homeland Security SpendingChapter 5: Protecting the Homeland: Some ParametersChapter 6: Homeland Protection: InfrastructureChapter 7: Protecting the AirlinesChapter 8: Assessing Policing, Mitigation, ResilienceChapter 9: Conclusions and Political RealitiesAppendix: The Risk Assessment Process

• ISBN: 978-0-19-979576-5
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Rústica
• Páginas: 256
• Fecha Publicación: 15/12/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés