Introduction
This paper highlights historian Daniel Sargent’s contribution to developing a policy framework for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to manage terrorism threats. Sargent is an Associate Professor at the University of California. He has published several books in the field of security management and policy reform, including “A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s,” which helped shape the current government’s approach to managing external security threats (UC Berkley, 2022). Broadly, Sargent has contributed to understanding US foreign policies underpinning its security operations, across different administration and their impact on the country’s current security landscape. His contributions to the future of the DHS are based on his past works, some of which are highlighted below.
Contribution of the Leader
The mandate for the DHS is to prevent security threats from harming the American people. This broad order has implications for specific areas of its security operations. Daniel Sargent has helped draw attention to the importance of policy reform as a critical area of security management (UC Berkley, 2022).
Notably, the scholar has contributed to explaining how the DHS should adapt to long-term changes occurring in its operational environment. They can be evaluated based on the principles of effective leadership that guide the activities of most state organizations and institutions. To complete this review, five practices of exemplary leadership, as proposed by Kouzes and Posner (1987), will be used for assessment. Table 1 below highlights their relationship with Sargent’s contribution to DHS’s operations.
Assessment of Sargent’s Leadership Principles
Model the Way (Agency: DHS)
Sargent explains the importance of adapting to long-term changes in operational environments. The outcome was improved US foreign policy relationships designed to promote international cooperation in security management.
Inspire a Shared Vision (Agency: DHS and Foreign Governments)
Sargent envisions a future where state agencies promote the development and sustenance of a progressive international order of peace and security management. As an outcome, different administrations reviewed their state security policies.
Challenge the Process (Agency: Congress and DHS)
Sargent highlights opportunities for changing the status quo, such as adapting to constant security threats through improved agility and flexibility in the development of policy frameworks for action implementation. As a result, a futuristic assessment of the country’s security landscape was developed by embodying modern security risks, such as cyberattacks (Kannelønning & Katsikas, 2023).
Enable Others to Act (Agency: DHS)
Sargent exposed how some security agencies failed to adapt to the ever-changing security risk environment of the US and has enabled the development of a globally-oriented policy framework for the operationalization of security teams in the US.
Encourage the Heart (Agency: DHS)
Sargent recognizes the contributions that the DHS has made in averting large-scale security threats in the US and makes people understand the historical role of globalization in human societies and its impact on national security.
Analysis
Based on the information above, Sargent’s input to DHS operations stems from his zeal to expand the breadth of knowledge in the field and from the collective efforts of state agencies involved in homeland operations to address the issues mentioned. Therefore, the achievements highlighted in the matrix above represent the collective effort of the scholar and other institutions and organizations to enhance the quality of DHS operations. Based on this statement, one could argue that Sargent’s efforts at “Modeling the Way” affected all the agencies involved.
One unique contribution Sargent makes to DHS’s operations is contextualizing their policy plans within the historical value or contribution of globalization, which is shaping the nature and impact of modern state security threats today (Kannelønning & Katsikas, 2023). This statement explains why the DHS mandate has evolved from one that primarily focused on terrorism as the main security threat to one that encompasses other emerging and similarly critical security threats, including cybersecurity, immigration, and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic (Kannelønning & Katsikas, 2023). Overall, Sargent has helped expand people’s understanding of the DHS’s approach to security threats from a policy perspective.
The sentiments presented by Sargent suggest that America should not pursue its security policy interests abroad by styling nations in its image. He deemed this action “hubris” because it stemmed from the state’s quest to exert its dominance and superiority on the world stage. This feat carries consequences for its security and national resource planning (UC Berkley, 2022).
Despite these criticisms, Sargent’s contributions to the operations of the DHS are balanced, as they also include positive elements of state security review. For example, he says that the DHS has helped avert major terrorism threats since 9/11. He attributes this success to the government’s willingness to learn from past mistakes of operating a fragmented security system. Some of these issues have since been addressed through the reforms outlined in this paper.
Conclusion
Overall, an assessment of Daniel Sargent’s biography affirms his position as a leader in homeland security management. Notably, he has successfully “modeled the way” for people to understand the government’s policy development framework in the last 20 years by addressing external and internal threats. Overall, the scholar’s contributions have supported the DHS’s vision: to ensure the state is resilient in managing terrorist threats and to maintain a safe homeland for all American citizens, while promoting the principles of safety and respect for humanity worldwide.
References
Kannelønning, K., & Katsikas, S. K. (2023). A systematic literature review of how cybersecurity-related behavior has been assessed. Information and Computer Security, 4(1), 1-10.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (1987). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (5th ed.). John Wiley and Sons.
UC Berkley. (2022). Daniel J. Sargent.