The Third Dialogue

We began the third and final national dialogue for the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review this week. This dialogue is the culmination of an extensive stakeholder outreach effort that began in June with Secretary Napolitano’s outreach to homeland security stakeholder associations and two previous national dialogues.

During the previous two dialogues, we asked stakeholders to review, rate, and discuss the concepts, ideas, and draft recommendations developed by our six study groups. In the second national dialogue, over 11,000 stakeholders viewed study group proposals, and offered more than 400 unique ideas, over 2,000 comments, and over 4,000 ratings. These stakeholders came from across the entire homeland security enterprise, all 50 U.S. States and the District of Columbia, and more than 2,000 U.S. Cities. Stakeholders have offered insightful comments about critical concepts such as resiliency, achieving balance between security and the facilitation of trade and legal immigration, individual, community, and family preparedness, and the need to develop working relationships and partnerships. This extensive stakeholder feedback, along with insights from our DHS study group members, interagency partners and key Association stakeholders, has continued to inform the work of our study groups.

The third dialogue, which ends on October 4, presents the final study group proposals, including the vision, goals, objectives, and key strategic outcomes from the mission studies as well as the path forward for the Homeland Security National Risk Assessment Study Group. We are seeking your input on the strategic approaches proposed by the study groups, the implications of these proposed strategic approaches, and the proposed strategic outcomes.

Your input will help inform the final review and decision-making on the QHSR study group proposals. Join the conversation at www.homelandsecuritydialogue.org.

Alan

Alan D. Cohn is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy (Strategic Plans)