Topic: Comp Exam

Description: [?]

Preferred language style: English (U.S.)

Comprehensive Exam
The questions will be necessarily broad, for this is a comprehensive
examination. Your answers must be detailed, so as to prove to the
person who grades your examination that you know the essentials of a
particular subject area. Answer each question with at least one page
in detail.
1. Essay: Intelligence. What was the role of the intelligence
community in the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq War? Some have coined the
pre-war intelligence activity an “intelligence failure.† What was
the failure(s)? Did U.S. national decision-makers themselves
contribute to the intelligence failure? How? What features of the
American political system may have contributed to these failures? What
recent changes to the U.S. intelligence community might improve future
intelligence support to U.S. national decision-makers? How? If there
are future successes, what American political system features will
help make them so?
Points: 25

2. Essay: Terrorism. This question has many parts and they all must be
addressed. Why is the Middle East the main source of international
terrorists who target the West? What cultural or historical factors
have affected the rise of the international terrorist threat? Why?
Based on your analysis, what does the future hold for international
terrorism by the year 2030? What current U.S. actions might be helpful
in stemming a potential increase in terrorism? Are these actions
likely to happen? Why or why not?
Points: 25

3. Essay: Emergency and Disaster Management. Discuss the factors that
can impede upon a major disaster response (discuss disasters
generically). Discuss the most significant policies and procedures
that have been implemented in order to improve disaster response. Have
they worked? If they haven’t had a chance to prove themselves, will
they work? Why or why not? Discuss the significance of the Incident
Command System. What factors will affect the degree to which local,
state, and federal agencies are able to respond to the same incident?
Points: 25

4. Essay: Homeland Security. This question deals with the interagency
relationships between local, state, and federal agencies in the
preparation and response to terrorist or emergency management
incidents. Explain the interagency process in the making of U.S.
homeland security in general and discuss how the process might affect
the outcome. Then, using an example, discuss the roles and impact on
security policy of international public opinion and U.S. public
opinion, the media, interest groups, think tanks, influential
citizens, foreign governments, international organizations, U.S.
Congress, executive branch agencies, intelligence community, military,
close presidential advisors, and the president. Be sure to discuss
each of these actors in the making of the policy example you used. How
did the actors’ influence or lack thereof, influence the outcome? If
it is U.S. homeland security why are groups and entities outside the
U.S. a factor?
Points: 25

5. Essay: Homeland Security. The DHS mission is to “prevent and
deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and
hazards to the nation.† How does DHS do this and who are its
partners in making this a reality? Be sure to address each of the
prevention, deterrence, protection and response aspects.
Points: 25

6. Essay: Homeland Security. Evaluate, in a broad sense, the
challenges facing the security industry in the 21st Century.
Specifically, you must address the following areas as a minimum:
terrorism and the role of the private security industry in the War on
Terror, the effect of globalization on the industry in terms of the
challenges of managing technological change, outsourcing, downsizing,
and managing a cross-cultural security organization either in the U.S.
or overseas.