DHS Has Become Central to American Strategy, But Its Strategy Has Not Caught Up

A generation after 9/11, homeland security has returned to the center of American national security strategy through the 2025 National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and a Counterterrorism Strategy. The security environment has blurred the line between foreign and homeland threats, with cartels treated as national security threats and fentanyl precursors classified as weapons of mass destruction. Domestic violent extremism remains a core homeland concern. Iranian state-affiliated cyber and targeting activities reinforce that overseas conflicts create direct homeland implications for critical infrastructure, public gatherings, and lone-actor violence. DHS’s strategic architecture has not kept pace, leaving no strategic lodestar to align its components around a coherent departmental vision. Past administrations failed to produce a timely, effective Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.

"A generation after 9/11, the homeland has returned to the center of American national security strategy. The 2025 National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy (NDS), and last week's Counterterrorism Strategy each push in that direction. Parity is the right destination, but it is also a long road. Closing the distance requires a Department of Homeland Security that can chart its own course over the years it will take. The institutional strategy capable of guiding that transition still does not exist."

"The security environment that produced these documents is one where the line between foreign and homeland threats has thinned. Cartels are now treated as national security threats. Fentanyl trafficking is no longer viewed solely as a criminal issue, with its precursors now being classified as weapons of mass destruction. Domestic violent extremism remains a core homeland concern."

"America's ongoing conflict with Iran has reinforced the same dynamic. Iranian state-affiliated actors targeted U.S. medical technology firm in March, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued joint advisories on Iranian cyber actors probing U.S. critical infrastructure. Threats once treated primarily as overseas contingencies increasingly carry direct homeland implications across cyber operations, critical infrastructure security, public gatherings, and lone-actor violence."

"The department's strategic architecture has not kept pace. As Customs and Border Protection (CBP) manages the border, the Coast Guard secures the maritime domain, and FEMA prepares for disasters, DHS still lacks a strategic lodestar capable of aligning its disparate components around a coherent departmental vision. The first Trump administration did not produce a Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). The Biden administration produced the review six months behind the strategic cycle, and the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found it against ten of twenty-o"

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