Read and reflect on the following article. The article may be located by clicking on the “The CIP Report: September 2014” link on the Past Issues Catalog page:
Mueller, J., & Stewart M. G. (2014, September). A risk Assessment of the FBI’s counterterrorism efforts. The CIP Report, 13(2). https://cip.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/146_The-CIP-Report-September-2014_Risk.pdf
In this article, the authors lay out a simple, back-of-the-envelope approach for evaluating the costs and benefits of counterterrorism spending that uses only four variables: the consequences of a successful attack, the likelihood of a successful attack, the degree to which the security measure reduces risk, and the cost of the security measure. To illustrate this approach, the authors apply it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to assess if its counterterrorism effort reduces the terrorism risk enough to justify its cost.
In your article critique, identify the article premise and supporting points on whether or not the authors’ vulnerability analysis and risk assessment approaches of the FBI’s efforts reduced the terrorism risk enough to justify its cost over a period of time. If so, how? If not, why? The article mentions that the Transportation Security Administration body scanner technology costs about $1.2 billion but does not mention any technology that the FBI is spending its budget on. Do you think this was an oversight or intentional? What new technology is the FBI actually employing? The article also does not address how the FBI is using geographical information systems (GIS) in domestic terror risk assessment and vulnerability analysis. Quickly research how the FBI is using GIS; how could the authors incorporate this information into the article? In addition to the content in the article, discuss two additional technology related recommendations that could be integrated into the author’s findings.
