Publication

This paper discusses the role of the US armed forces in homeland security after 9/11. The author argues that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the bioterrorist acts that followed, have prompted a review that reaffirms the Constitutional role of the federal government as protector of the US against foreign aggression, and restores the defense of the US homeland as the primary mission of the Department of Defense (DoD). The paper concludes that homeland security should not be viewed as exclusively or even primarily a military task and that success in securing the US will depend largely upon the nation's ability to achieve unity of effort at all levels of government.