Providing National Security
National security, a concept which developed mainly in the United States after World War II, is the protection of the state and its citizens through a variety of means, including military might, economic power, diplomacy, and power projection.
Specific measures taken to ensure national security include:
- using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats;
- marshaling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation;
- maintaining effective armed forces;
- implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures (including anti-terrorism legislation);
- ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure; using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information;
- using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats.
There are a variety of governmental departments and agencies within the United States that are responsible for developing policies to ensure national security. The Department of Defense is responsible for coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with the U.S. Armed Forces. The Department—headed by the Secretary of Defense—has three subordinate military departments: the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of Homeland Security, established after the September 11, 2001 attacks, is responsible for working within the civilian sphere to protect the country from and respond to terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters.
The Central Intelligence Agency is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It is responsible for providing national security intelligence assessments, performed by non-military commissioned civilian intelligence agents, to senior U.S. policymakers. The White House National Security Council is the principal forum used by the President for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisers, and Cabinet officials.
the Central Intelligence Agency
the Central Intelligence Agency, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessments