TRANSPORTATION - BTS - Bureau of Transportation Statistics

chapter 7National SecurityTransportation is inextricably linked to the security of our nation and its citizens. Supportingour armed forces and minimizing the transportation system’s vulnerability to intentionaldisruption, damage, or exploitation are crucial elements of the U.S. Department ofTransportation’s (USDOT’s) national security objective. Keeping the nation’s transportationsystem operating efficiently to support national defense requirements and to assist in disasterresponse and recovery efforts, without interrupting the flow of people and goods, is expectedto be a major focus over the next 25 years.During the last quarter century, U.S. armed forces have shifted from just anticipating apossible global conflict with a dangerous and powerful adversary to being prepared for rapiddeployment in localized military and humanitarian efforts as well.At the same time, the U.S. national security leadership has decided tostation fewer permanent U.S. troops in foreign countries, increasingreliance on reserve forces. This new role for the military createsdifferent demands on our transportation system.The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact transformedthe world by eliminating the Soviet conventional war threat toEurope and dramatically reducing the strategic nuclear threat to theUnited States. However, regional instability, drug trafficking, internationalterrorism, information warfare, and the random use ofweapons of mass destruction emerged as principal threats to ournational security.Since the end of the Cold War, many regions of the world havesuffered violent intrastate or ethnic conflicts that have underminedregional stability. Pursuant to our interests and those of the internationalcommunity, the United States has selectively responded tothese complex emergencies with diplomatic, humanitarian, economic,and, sometimes, military responses. The chosen actionreflects a careful balance of maximizing security while facilitatingcommerce.“We have pursued aconcerted national andinternational strategyagainst terrorism on threefronts: first, beyond ourborders, by working moreclosely than ever with ourfriends and allies; second,here at home, by giving lawenforcement the mostpowerful counterterrorismtools available; and, third,in our airports and airplanesby increasing aviationsecurity.”President William J. ClintonGeorge Washington UniversityAug. 5, 1996The Department conducts a wide range of peacetime engagementswith foreign democracies, in support of U.S. foreign policy, to help those nations build thesecurity and transportation infrastuctures critical to their survival. The agencies of theDepartment provide support through cooperative assistance to help nations establish orimprove critical infrastructure elements such as radionavigation, command and control,disaster response, maintenance, search and rescue, and law enforcement.Homeland security is an element of national security. While the domain of national securityis global, the domain of homeland security is primarily limited to our exclusive economiczone inward to the United States and its territories. Homeland security protects our homelandand citizens against an array of national security threats; it comprises three principalcomponents—homeland defense, border protection, and sovereignty preservation.7-1