Books

Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century

Belfer Center Studies in International Security

Overview

For Americans, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, crystallized the notion of homeland security. But what does it mean to "secure the homeland" in the twenty-first century? What lessons can be drawn from the first two decades of U.S. government efforts to do so? In Beyond 9/11, leading academic experts and former senior government officials address the most salient challenges of homeland security today.

The contributors discuss counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure protection; border security and immigration; transportation security; emergency management; combating transnational crime; protecting privacy in a world of increasingly intrusive government scrutiny; and managing the sprawling homeland security bureaucracy. They offer crucial strategic lessons and detailed recommendations on how to improve the U.S. homeland security enterprise

Beyond 9/11 Cover

SELECTED REVIEWS

"From the creation of DHS to the treatment of emergent risks like cybersecurity, this book offers thoughtful analyses about the current state of homeland security as well as recommendations for its future."
—Janet Napolitano, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2009–2013), President, University of California, Author of How Safe Are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11

"There are essential lessons here for both civilian and military authorities to minimize risks and maximize our national defenses against enemies foreign and domestic."
 —General Lori J. Robinson, Former Commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command

“This is a unique and important contribution to the much-neglected field of homeland security, and indispensable to those who want to understand where the U.S. homeland security enterprise has been and where it needs to go in the future."
 —Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Senator (1989–2013), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Senior Counsel, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, and Friedman, LLP

"The landscape of global challenges to homeland security changes daily. The authors' insights and analysis are invaluable as we manage the many risks we will encounter in the future."
—Tom Ridge, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2003–2005), Founder and CEO of Ridge Global, LLC

Recommended citation

Lawson, Chappell, Alan Bersin, and Juliette N. Kayyem, eds. Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century.  Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, August 2020.