The University and Agency Partnership Initiative (UAPI) is a cornerstone element of the CHDS mission of serving as “the Nation’s Homeland Security Educator.” Its mission: facilitate educational collaboration among institutions and agencies to support development of academic programs that enable a professional workforce and promote critical thinking in homeland security. The Initiative’s primary outcome is a sustainable network of university partners delivering the highest quality academic experience for students in homeland security and related fields. Leveraging CHDS materials and expertise, UAPI provides support to partners launching homeland security programs, helps prevent redundancy in curriculum development, and encourages partners to improve and add to the curricula that already exists.
In addition, UAPI organizes national and regional events that enable cross-institutional information exchange and encourage practitioner engagement with the broad capabilities of academia. The 10th Anniversary Homeland Defense & Security Education Summit, held in March 2017 in partnership with the DHS Office of Policy and hosted by George Mason University, is the premier example of UAPI’s effort to connect people and ideas. The outstanding papers that comprise this special issue of Homeland Security Affairs represent a sample of the depth and purpose of research across the Homeland Security enterprise. Readers might find value in these essays on two levels: first, in the theses proposed and the quality of the papers themselves; as well, I hope that the sample research provided here will stimulate interest in further engaging the remarkable capabilities across our community. On behalf of UAPI and our partners, thank you, and enjoy this special issue!
– Steve Recca, Director, University and Agency Partnership Initiative
Notes from the Editor
For the 2017 UAPI Summit Special Issue, Homeland Security Affairs presents the best papers from the 2017 University and Agency Partnership Initiative (UAPI) Summit Conference. This issue also contains executive summaries from eleven other outstanding papers from the UAPI Summit. All of the papers submitted for presentation at the meeting were vetted by an academic jury, and then the five best papers were selected by the Homeland Security Affairs Editorial Committee.
In “Cyber Border Security—Defining and Defending a National Cyber-Border,“ Phillip Osborn explores the concept of a cyber-border and explains how it can be applied and defended in the field of cyber-security.
In “Applying an Organizational Framework to Examine Jihadi Organizations as an Industry,” Michael Logan, Gina Ligon, and Douglas Derrick apply an organizational and industrial psychology approach to ascertain how certain characteristics of terrorist groups affect their performance.
In “Incorporating Prioritization in Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Programs, “ Duane Verner, Frederic Petit, and Kibek Kim, present an algorithm-based approach for identifying the most critical nodes in a critical infrastructure system.
In “A Right-Brained Approach to Critical Infrastructure Protection Theory in Support of Strategy and Education: Deterrence, Networks, Resilience and ‘Anti-Fragility,’” Eric Taquechel and Ted Lewis build on their previous work in applying insights from network science, operations research, complexity theory, and cognitive psychology to create a better approach to measuring risk and leveraging deterrence in critical infrastructure protection.
In “The Roots of Community Resilience: A Comparative Analysis of Structural Change in Four Gulf Coast Hurricane Response Networks,” Thomas Haase, Gunes Ertan, and Louise Comfort examine whether investments in information technology influenced the structural development and evolution of four disaster operations networks that formed in response to hurricanes in Louisiana and Texas.
