More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything: Homeland Security, Borders, and Disasters in the Twenty-First Century

by Ben Rohrbaugh

Migration, borders, cybersecurity, natural disasters, and Homeland security is constantly in the news. Despite ongoing attention, these problems seem to be getting bigger even as the political discussion grows more overheated and misleading. Ben Rohrbaugh, a former border security director at the White House’s National Security Council, cuts through the noise to provide an accessible and novel framework to understand both homeland security and the thinking around how to keep civilians safe.Throughout the twentieth century, the United States did not experience national security domestically; it defended its borders by conducting military, foreign policy, and intelligence operations internationally, and then separated these activities from domestic law enforcement with bright legal lines. In the twenty-first century, U.S. national security no longer occurs exclusively outside of the nation. The U.S. government is beginning to respond to this change, and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security is merely the first step in an organizational and strategic realignment that will be a long, difficult, and mistake-filled process. More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything is an accessible and engaging guide to homeland security, particularly migration and border security, that makes innovative arguments about the American government and keeping citizens safe, and provides practical solutions to real-world problems. 

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2020

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I think of "threats to national security" and "disaster" the first name that comes to mind is Ben Rohrbaugh. The title of the book comes from a line from Dashiell Hammett, showing that the only thing that rivals Rohrbaugh's knowledge of the inner workings of DHS is his knowledge of pulp detective novels. Rohrbaugh is "Sam Spade" of these policy challenges. He applies this national security experience gleaned from years at DHS and the NSC, piecing together clues to provide an engaging overview of the Homeland Security apparatus, its pain points, and its need for reform. This includes all-too-prescient identification of this country's exposure to threats like pandemics, cyber terrorism, and transnational organized crime, and the role that borders play in coping with these risks. He calls out our politicians' anemic response to these twenty-first century threats and their proclivity to always be looking back at the last disaster. The author borders on being a "Border genius," and it shows.