Problems of Preparedness: U.S. Readiness for a Domestic Terrorist Attack

Abstract

Richard Falkenrath, on leave from Harvard University, discusses the evolution of the United States’ domestic preparedness program since the mid-1990s. The program, designed to prepare the country for a domestic terrorist attack with chemical or biological weapons, suffers from a variety of difficulties. Falkenrath traces one of the program’s largest problems—a lack of integration—to its origins as a series of multiple, loosely related programs that developed through “a fragmented, often chaotic policymaking and budgetary process,” rather than a coherent national strategy. He concludes with several recommendations for addressing this situation.