Papers by Christopher Bellavita
Homeland Security Affairs, Jan 31, 2007
This article presents what I consider to be ten essential homeland security books. The list is pe... more This article presents what I consider to be ten essential homeland security books. The list is personal and provisional. The discipline is too new to have a canon. We need to continuously examine what is signal and what is background noise in homeland security's academic environment. Much has been written about homeland security. A lot more is in the publishing pipeline. My list includes books I find myself returning to as I seek to understand contemporary homeland security events. Beyond personal interest, I believe they form a foundation for a growing understanding of the parameters of what it means to study homeland security as a professional discipline. Other books-and important articles-could be added, but ten is sufficient to start.
Public Productivity Review, 1987
Review of Policy Research, 1987
This paper has three objectives. The first is to build on the link between public policy and orga... more This paper has three objectives. The first is to build on the link between public policy and organization theory by applying an organization theory idea (culture) to a specific policy. The second objective is to describe the major reasons for and against the proposed US space sta-tion. The ...
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1984
The policy organization is the organization change (for example modifications, reallocations, and... more The policy organization is the organization change (for example modifications, reallocations, and new activities) implied by a change in policy. The authors use this concept to study the process of policy implementation in organizations. They pay particular attention to policy communication: the ways in which information moves from researcher to manager. Using a case study of policy change in the California educational system, they consider organization goals, members, environment, structure, resources, tasks, decision-making and policy communication. 'Connecting the concepts of policy analysis, organizational structure, and communication behavior in a fresh way, the authors provide a timely, stimulating resource for policymakers, managers, analysts, teachers and students.' -- Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance, December 1983 '...the book is a laudable attempt at identifying the care of policy making processes in organisations.' -- Business Standard, Nov 1984
Copyright c©2006 by the authors. Homeland Security Affairs is an academic journal avail-able free... more Copyright c©2006 by the authors. Homeland Security Affairs is an academic journal avail-able free of charge to individuals and institutions. Because the purpose of this publication is the widest possible dissemination of knowledge, copies of this journal and the articles contained herein may be printed or downloaded and redistributed for personal, research or educational purposes free of charge and without permission. Any commercial use of Homeland Security Affairs or the articles published herein is expressly prohibited with-out the written consent of the copyright holder. The copyright of all articles published in Homeland Security Affairs rests with the author(s) of the article. Homeland Security Affairs is the online journal of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS).
Copyright c○2006 by the authors. Homeland Security Affairs is an academic journal available free ... more Copyright c○2006 by the authors. Homeland Security Affairs is an academic journal available free of charge to individuals and institutions. Because the purpose of this publication is the widest possible dissemination of knowledge, copies of this journal and the articles contained herein may be printed or downloaded and redistributed for personal, research or educational purposes free of charge and without permission. Any commercial use of Homeland Security Affairs or the articles published herein is expressly prohibited without the written consent of the copyright holder. The copyright of all articles published in Homeland Security Affairs rests with the author(s) of the article. Homeland Security Affairs is the online journal of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS).
Homeland Security Affairs, 2008
The United States, through a concerted national effort that galvanizes the strengths and capabili... more The United States, through a concerted national effort that galvanizes the strengths and capabilities of Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments; the private and non-profit sectors; and regions, communities, and individual citizens ? along with our partners in the international community ? will work to achieve a secure Homeland that sustains our way of life as a free, prosperous, and welcoming America.? Homeland Security Vision, 2007 National Strategy 1The vision announced six years after the September 11, 2001 attacks is another effort to clarify why the nation engages in the activity called homeland security. It draws a picture of everyone working together to ensure the United States remains a free, wealthy, and friendly nation. The vision suggests both the nobility of our hopes and the innocence of an America untainted by globalism's realpolitik.One still hears the question asked, "What is homeland security?" Is it a program, an objective, a discipline, an age...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2005
What has happened down here is the winds have changed.Clouds roll in from the north and it starte... more What has happened down here is the winds have changed.Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain.'It's absolutely horrible,' says one of the women. 'Babies aren't getting food.''And they're all black babies,' says the second woman.'Old people are dying in wheelchairs. And they're just leaving them to die,' says the first one.'People can't get out of the city,' says the second.The scene is a metropolitan airport. It is early September. The nation is watching Katrina on television. The two women are in their early twenties. They are on break from their job at an airport coffee kiosk.A man, waiting for his plane, hears the conversation.'What are you guys going to do to make sure that never happens again?' he asks.'What do you mean?' says the first one.'What's happening is horrible. You're right. So what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do to make sure Americans never hav...
Preface The Role of Practitioners in the Intellectual Development of Public Administration by Chr... more Preface The Role of Practitioners in the Intellectual Development of Public Administration by Christopher Bellavita The Individual and Public Organizations Managers Are Learners and Teachers by Patrick J. Sheeran Contemplation and Administrations: An Alternative Paradigm by Nancy J. Eggert The Hero's Journey in Public Administration by Christopher Bellavita Other People and Public Organizations Organizational Learning and the Environment of Evaluation by Richard C. Sonnichsen Organizational Evil: Concepts and Practices by Paul B. Lorentzen Integrating Interests to Control Conflict: A Critique of Federal Sector Labor Relations by Frank D. Ferris Structure and Public Organizations Influencing Structure: From Hierarchy to Chaos by Arthur A. Ciarkowski A Learning Model of Organization by Paul W. Waldo, Jr. Archetypes in Organizations by Judith M. Lombard The Structure of Power in Public Organizations by Frank J. Nice Skills and Public Organizations Understanding Effective Management...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2011
What do the concept of homeland security and the intellectual program surrounding that concept ac... more What do the concept of homeland security and the intellectual program surrounding that concept actually contribute to the nation's security?Since 2004 I have asked each new homeland security class at the Naval Postgraduate School what is working in homeland security and what needs to be improved. I ask the questions again eighteen months later when they are about to graduate.Over the years, the answers to both questions - and at both times - tend to constellate around the same issues:* Collaboration -- among people, agencies, disciplines, jurisdictions and increasingly, nations;* Information sharing and intelligence;* Preventing terrorism - arising from international and domestic sources;* Preparedness - in its many guises, including most recently "resilience";* Transportation security - aviation, rail, other public transportation;* Border control - northern, southern and coastal;* Illegal immigration;* Technology - its role in homeland security; what problems it solve...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2010
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. ... more Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Marcus Aurelius (121-180)Aviation bracketed both ends of 2009.On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River. No one died. The captain was called a hero.On December 25, 2009, Northwest Flight 253 landed in Detroit after a passenger tried to ignite a crotch bomb. No one died. The rapidly formed conventional wisdom claims the failure to prevent the passenger from boarding the plane means "the system" - presumably the homeland security system - failed.It was that kind of year for homeland security: several close calls, some heartbreaking incidents, but no catastrophes.After eight years, the homeland security enterprise remains unable to guarantee Americans will be safe from terrorism. Americans are not even safe within the protected confines of an army base. When seen through the ax-grinding lens of media, anything less than perfect security must be defined...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2007
Law and justice/Law enforcement; Terrorism and threats; Terrorism and threats/Counterterrorism
Homeland Security Affairs, 2005
The July 7, 2005 attacks on London inescapably direct public attention to our own transportation ... more The July 7, 2005 attacks on London inescapably direct public attention to our own transportation system. Everyone getting on a bus or train will look a little more carefully at objects that seem out of place or at people who look a bit suspicious. Public officials will call for more equipment, more people, and more spending for transportation security. It happened in the U.S. after the Madrid bombings in 2004. But eventually - as also happened after Madrid - public attention and vigilance will wane. Transportation security advocates will again have to battle for resources against competing homeland security interests.The attacks in Madrid and London illustrate Homeland Security's slide from the apex of the national domestic policy agenda into the mundane world of grants, bureaucracy and interest groups. But this is not a bad thing. It is an affirmation of the profound trust Americans continue to place in their public safety professionals. It is also the natural dynamic of the Is...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2008
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.?... more Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.?Marcus Aurelius (121-180)What events and trends shaped the homeland security terrain last year?In December we asked members of the Naval Postgraduate School's extended homeland security network 1 to respond to two questions:* From your perspective ? and using whatever criteria you'd like ? what would you say was a top homeland security-related issue or story in 2008? And why?* Please identify something you consider to be an emerging homeland security issue. (For the purposes of this question, emerging issues are embryonic concerns that may develop into significant problems or opportunities in the future.)Their responses highlighted the 2008 presidential election, the terrorist attack in Mumbai, the economic meltdown, the chaos on the southern border, the continued quest to define homeland security, and an expanding threat spectrum, including the cyber threat ? possibly the year&#...
Prelude To VexationWhat is a homeland security future worth creating? 1 Each of us could posit an... more Prelude To VexationWhat is a homeland security future worth creating? 1 Each of us could posit an answer to that question. After enough talk, we would probably agree on the broad outlines of a desirable future. Eventually we could develop a strategy for implementing that vision - or at least some of it - within the next ten years. But as the years passed, our vision would encounter the tedium of incrementalism, the discontinuity of unexpected disappointment, and the surprise of unearned fortune.Nietzsche wrote about this process:To make plans and project designs brings with it many good sensations; and whoever had the strength to be nothing but a forger of plans his whole life long would be a very happy man. But he would occasionally have to take a rest from this activity by carrying out a plan - and then comes the vexation and the sobering up. 2Homeland security strategy - defined as the pattern of consistent behavior over time - is both intentional and emergent. The homeland secur...
Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence... more Nothing is harder, yet nothing is more necessary, than to speak of certain things whose existence is neither demonstrable nor probable. The very fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence and to the possibility of being born.- Herman Hesse, attributed to "Albertus Secundus"1ACT 1A country road.A wooden table.A small whiteboard.Gloaming.Scene 1 - There Is Nothing To Be DoneThe initial stage, the act of conceiving or inventing a theory, seems to me neither to call for logical analysis nor to be susceptible of it -- Karl PopperCHARLES: Everyone should be their own homeland security theorist.2GAILE: Why in heaven's name would you wish that?BARCLAY: It would be pure chaos.JACQUES: We already have chaos. At least intellectual chaos. Homeland security has no theoretical center of gravity, no overall strategy for developing its theoretical foundations.GAILE: (agreeing) It's a mishmash of loosely connected id...
Homeland security has spiraled into Stage Five of the Issue Attention Cycle. 1 Stage Five ? the p... more Homeland security has spiraled into Stage Five of the Issue Attention Cycle. 1 Stage Five ? the post-problem stage ? means homeland security again operates principally behind the public apron. Stakeholders sedulously sift through the grist of homeland security's congressional, industrial, academic, and bureaucratic complex. The professionals who populate that complex spend their days calibrating the strategies, programs, and institutions disjunctively formed in the earlier stages of the Cycle.Except for an occasional fifteen minutes of public attention to dead terrorists, disrupted plots, and grant cuts, homeland security is not an issue high on the public's agenda. 2 It could leap back on top in an instant. 3 But for now most conversations about homeland security take place within a comparatively small community.The issues are largely the same ones talked about for the last five years: funding, threats, hazards, borders, interoperability, intelligence, response, transportat...
The article describes how one can begin to learn about homeland security. Starting with instituti... more The article describes how one can begin to learn about homeland security. Starting with institutionally approved, rather than objectively-tested and validated, foundational knowledge may provide academic order, but the order is achieved at the cost of constraining prematurely what homeland security could become. The method presented in this essay starts with the subjective interests of a learner, and relies on the usefulness of intellectual conflict to transform the learner’s ideas. The article outlines several frameworks learners can use to structure their homeland security inquiry. The author argues claims about what constitutes foundational knowledge in homeland security frequently are based on sociallyconstructed agreement that masks the subjectivity needed to arrive at consensus. Rather than avoiding subjectivity in determining the roots and bounds of homeland security, we can encourage reflective practitioners to construct and share insights derived from their experience -base...
Homeland Security Affairs, 2005
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Papers by Christopher Bellavita