The Review of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Structure in the Context of Punctuated Equilibrium

Authors:
Fatih Karakus
DOI Number:
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Abstract
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in the aftermath of 9/11 terror attacks which was highly an extraordinary period. The Bush Administration already had a policy agenda intended to make radical changes in the federal management structure. However, it lacked public and political support. 9/11 provided the administration with the window of opportunity. Oppositions from the Congress and unions were manipulated with national security rhetoric. Then, the creation of the DHS was decided by a small group of people in the administration. Experts and affected agencies were not included in the process which yielded to redundancies in organizational structure. Therefore, The DHS structure should be revised and reorganized to avoid these redundancies in responsibilities and budget, and network structures should be addressed more for better coordination and collaboration.

Keywords:

Department of Homeland Security, Punctuated Equilibrium, Large Leaps, Redundancy, Networks, Political Discourse.

Full Text:

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