Learning Materials from the NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security
The Reflecting Pool is a series of informal conversations with CHDS Homeland Security Master’s program students about their thesis research, the spark that led to the selection of their topic, research challenges and personal experiences with the thesis process. Participants also discuss how the topic relates to the broader homeland security enterprise and what it’s like to be part of the master’s program.
Play the audio: COVID19 has swept the globe in little more than 3 months. Health officials have enacted quarantine orders to reduce the disease’s spread but who enforces those orders? Lieutenant Don Lowenthal (Masters...
Play the audio: Why does the click-through rate on threatening headlines far exceed those that are more benign? Calling something a threat through a provocative headline or soundbite initiates a biological reaction that almost...
Play the audio: First responders prepare themselves physically for complex and chaotic situations but what about mental preparedness. Yonkers Fire Department Assistant Chief John Flynn (Masters 1501/ELP 1301) wanted to know if responders could...
Play the audio: The human-machine interface found in today’s complex machines introduces unprecedented opportunities for promise and peril. Jackie Lindsey (Masters 1601), currently the Cabinet Secretary at the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security...
Play the audio: How is it that fringe stories and counterfeit narratives get traction, enter mainstream media, and are accepted as fact? Intelligence expert Samantha Korta (Masters 1605/1606 aka 1611) studied information laundering to...
Play the audio: Providing perfect security in an era of unbounded risk is impossible. In my interview with Jack Anderson (Masters 1401), we talk about caribou scapula divination among Canadian nomadic tribes, jazz standards,...
Play the audio: Jessica Bress is the Director of Continuing Education for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Her thesis explores United States’ drug policy and finds it wholly unprepared for the burgeoning phenomena related...
Play the audio: We live in a world where information is abundant. But in our search for truth we must be careful. Without carefully curating the quality and rigor of information we receive, its...
Play the audio: Reports of police use of excessive force appear weekly in the media and have generated outrage in many communities. Officers actions are currently judged by the Graham v Connor ‘standard of...
Play the audio: David Flamm (CHDS Master’s cohort 1401/2) discusses the inefficiencies, conflicts, and misinterpretations that are created by emergency responders who rely on different approaches to incident management. He draws on practitioner interviews...
Play the audio: In this podcast, David Riedman, Captain of the Montgomery County MD Fire and Rescue Service (cohort 1401/1402), speaks about how the critical infrastructure club in the United States needs to be...
Play the audio: Standard operating procedures (SOPs) guide emergency responders in a crisis, providing predetermined steps to manage anticipated events. However, modern disasters often manifest as complex systems and produce unanticipated outcomes. As a...