Improving Surface Transportation Security A Research and Development Strategy (1999) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction and Background
1 Introduction and Background
Pages 3-12
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Numerous federal agencies conduct R&D on security measures against hostile attacks. Much of that work is generally applicable.
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is a key challenge. Now that the Cold War is over, security concerns in many fields are being focused increasingly on the threat of terrorism, whether by an organized state or state-sponsored group as a form of "asymmetrical warfare" or by a nonstate group or individual motivated by extremist ideology or hatred.
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Because threats change over time as the world situation changes and as security is tightened in other areas, DOT and others should be proactive in preparing for the future despite the low frequency of recent attacks on surface transportation in the United States. The responsible agencies would be most unwise to wait passively until a major incident brings calls for action which they would then be ill prepared to meet.
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During rush hour on a Monday morning in March 1995, a Japanese cult released the nerve agent satin in the Tokyo subway. Even tiny quantities of this chemical are deadly.
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To that end, DOT should continue its active and long-term participation in such coordinating organizations as the Critical Infrastructure Coordinating Group's interagency working group on R&D (supported by the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office) and the Technical Support Working Group (an interagency activity led by the Departments of Defense, State, and Energy)
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Funds are typically awarded via contracts rather than grants or cooperative agreements, and although these contracts are usually awarded competitively, the proposals are usually reviewed by agency staff rather than peer researchers. A large fraction of R&D funding is congressionally directed ("earmarked")
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b Includes Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, Maritime Administration, Office of the Inspector General, and Surface Transportation Board. Note: The figures given here are totals for"Research, Development, and Technology." For most agencies, these are the sums of subtotals for "R&D," "Technology," and "Facilities." There are many ways to define R&D and the types of activity it includes.
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These efforts include two presidential decision directives, the work of the Presidential Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) and its successor the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, and DOT's own efforts at vulnerability assessment.
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The Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, which is housed in the Department of Commerce, was formed in May 1998 as a result of PDD-63. It has several responsibilities: integration of plans for individual sectors into a national infrastructure assurance plan coordination of analysis of the federal government's dependencies on critical infrastructures coordination of national education and awareness efforts and other public and legislative activities related to infrastructure protection support of the national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection, and counterterrorism, the interagency Critical Infrastructure Coordinat ing Group, and the National Infrastructure Assurance Council In July 1998, the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office published the report of a multiagency road-mapping effort for infrastructure protection R&D (CIAO, 19981.
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The recommendations give particular attention to the important and underrecognized question of strategic vulnerabilities, that is, vulnerabilities of the surface transportation infrastructure as a whole as distinct from vulnerabilities of individual infrastructure elements. Chapter 3 discusses a systematic approach to establishing an R&D strategy.
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Key Terms
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