Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano thanks you for participating in the National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). This groundbreaking, web-based interactive dialogue is designed to allow a broad range of opinions and ideas to inform the work of the QHSR study groups and strengthen the Department's relationship with its vast array of partners and stakeholders.

The first dialogue, which is open from August 3, 2009 until August 9, 2009, invites you to view and weigh in on proposals made by QHSR study groups in six different study areas, suggest your own ideas and proposals in those six areas, and to tag and to rate the ideas and proposals of others.

As a nation, we face a number of common threats, and homeland security is a shared responsibility. The QHSR is a critical part of the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to review and refine the nation's approach to homeland security. State, local, and tribal governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, academia and you, the American people, are key elements of our national homeland security enterprise. And as such, you are a critical part of this review.

The Department of Homeland Security views the QHSR as an opportunity for unprecedented collaboration and partnership across the homeland security stakeholder community. We appreciate your taking part in the conversation and we value your opinion. We invite you to engage in all three dialogues throughout the summer (August 3 to August 9, August 31 to September 6, and September 28 to October 4) and help inform the nation's homeland security goals, objectives and the tools to achieve them.

The Homeland Security Dialogues are extensions of QHSR study groups, each of which are focusing on specific study areas. There are six study areas: four mission studies, and two studies on key homeland security processes.

  • Counterterrorism and Domestic Security Management
  • Securing Our Borders
  • Smart and Tough Enforcement of Immigration Laws
  • Preparing for, Responding to, and Recovering from Disasters

The Process studies are:

  • Homeland Security National Risk Assessment
  • Homeland Security Planning and Capabilities

This is a new approach. The content you will see is not final, vetted product but the actual work product of the QHSR study groups. When participating in the dialogues you are in essence taking part in our study groups, and your comments will feed directly into the study groups' deliberations as they frame options for homeland security decision makers.

It is our intent to conduct the QHSR in an open and transparent way, which is why the three National Homeland Security dialogues are designed to engage our stakeholders early and often throughout the QHSR process. We cannot adequately conduct a review of the homeland security of the nation without your direct input.

This National Dialogue tool permits our stakeholder community to participate in a dynamic, interactive discussion about QHSR study group work product. Your input will be used to directly inform the work of our study groups. Please note, however, that the study groups will not provide responses to all of the comments made as part of the National Dialogue.

It is important to note that the review process is iterative. The study groups and the dialogue participants will work throughout the summer to develop and refine the study content. The findings that derive from this iterative process will be presented to DHS Leadership, Federal interagency leaders, and state and local government leaders for their decision. The Secretary of Homeland Security will provide her conclusions to Congress in a final report by December 31, 2009.

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About the National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review

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This year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will conduct the first-ever Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. This congressionally mandated strategic review of homeland security will guide the Department and the nation for the next four years.

In order to capture this critical feedback, the Secretary is seeking your participation via three week-long, web-based dialogues. Each dialogue will build on the previous one, allowing participants to view and comment directly on proposed elements of the review before they are made final. Each of the three dialogues will involve discussions on six study areas being reviewed by through the QHSR, four of which are mission studies and two of which are focused on enhancing key processes.

The mission studies are:

  • Counterterrorism and Domestic Security Management: This study area includes transportation system security, critical infrastructure/key resource protection, cyber security, domestic weapons of mass destruction (WMD)/chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-explosive (CBRNE) protection, and protection of leadership and visiting heads of state.
  • Securing Our Borders: This study area includes facilitating the lawful flow of people and goods in and out of our Ports of Entry (air, land, and sea) and securing our borders and approaches (air, land, and sea) against smuggling and trafficking.
  • Smart and Tough Enforcement of Immigration Laws: This study area includes administering the lawful immigration system, preventing entry of dangerous people and pursuing smart and tough enforcement.
  • Preparing for, Responding to, and Recovering from Disasters: This study area includes emergency preparedness, response, and recovery, continuity of operations/continuity of government, and individual and community preparedness.

The process studies are:

  • Homeland Security National Risk Assessment: This study area focuses on developing a process and methodology to assess all-hazard national homeland security risk, and how that assessment will inform strategic prioritization and decision-making.
  • Homeland Security Planning and Capabilities: This study area focuses on assessing current approaches to national homeland security planning and capability development, streamlining and synthesizing those processes, and charting a course forward.

When Can I Participate in the National Dialogue on the QHSR?

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All homeland security partners and stakeholders are invited to register, log on, and participate at any stage of the National Dialogue. The National Dialogue on the QHSR is a series of three iterative dialogues that will take place over the next few months between August and October 2009:

First Dialogue: August 3 through August 9

The first dialogue session will present the initial output generated by six QHSR study groups. This begins the initial phase of the study group work identifying homeland security goals, objectives, and key strategic outcomes for the national homeland security missions. You will also be able to comment on proposed enhancements to two key processes: Homeland Security National Risk Assessment and Homeland Security Planning and Capabilities. During this session, you will be able to evaluate content proposed by QHSR study groups, and rate, tag, and suggest your own alternative proposals.

Second Dialogue: August 31 through September 6

The second dialogue will present additional content from the QHSR study groups to continue the iteration of mission and process concepts. At this point, the work of the QHSR study groups will have benefited from stakeholder and partner input from the first dialogue. The continued participation by the homeland security stakeholder and partner community throughout the National Dialogue is critical to the QHSR process.

Third Dialogue: September 28 through October 4

The third dialogue will seek your final review of further refined mission goals, objectives, key strategic outcomes and enhancements to the two key processes.

How Does the National Dialogue Platform Work?

During the three individual dialogues that make up the National Dialogue on the QHSR, participants will be asked to rate, tag, discuss, and prioritize feedback relating to the materials proposed by the QHSR study groups. Here is an explanation of what some of those features do, and how they will help us understand your feedback:

  • Rating - This Dialogue asks you to rate individual pieces of feedback, called "ideas," that generally consist of a title, a description of the feedback, and a description of why the author thinks that feedback is important. The site provides a five-star scale, similar to that used by other popular sites, with five stars indicating the highest rating, and one star indicating the lowest. The use of this functionality means that, over the course of the week-long Dialogue, the QHSR study groups will be able to assess which ideas are the most popular or resonant with dialogue participants. This, in turn, helps to identify novel ideas, important best practices, and relative priorities.
  • Tagging - The Dialogue also asks users to apply topic tags to their own submissions and the submissions of others. Tags are usually one- or two-word phrases describing the contents of an idea; for example, an idea about the need for more focus on communications between first responders might be assigned the tags "first responders," "emergency response," and "communications." Any user can tag any other's idea, and we encourage you to add topic tags to the ideas of others.

    Topic tags are useful for two reasons. For Dialogue participants, they make it easy to find interesting and relevant content; clicking on any topic tag will provide a list of other ideas that have had that same tag applied. For the QHSR study groups, topic tags make it possible to discern what broad themes and topics are being raised most frequently during the Dialogue. This happens primarily through the tag cloud, which displays a list of all topic tags, with those used more frequently displayed in a larger font.

  • Submitting Your Own Feedback - In addition to rating and tagging the submissions of others, you are also able to add your own submission to the discussion. When you do this, by clicking the "Submit an Idea" button, you will be taken to a page where you can give your idea a title and add a long-form explanation (up to 10,000 characters). These ideas can then be rated and tagged by others.
There is also a full user guide for the National Dialogue platform

How Will Participation in the National Dialogue on the QHSR make a Difference?

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These dialogues enable partners from across the nation to weigh in on QHSR study group proposals relating to homeland security mission goals, objectives, and key strategic outcomes, as well as proposed enhancements to key processes. Participants can also suggest their own alternatives to these proposals, refine them in open discussion, and rate the best ones. The feedback received through these dialogues will directly inform the work of the QHSR study groups.

Who hosts the National Dialogue on the QHSR?

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To host this series of Dialogues, DHS has partnered with the National Academy of Public Administration. Established in 1967 and chartered by Congress, the National Academy is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of top public management and organizational leaders who tackle the nation's most critical and complex challenges. As the home of the Collaboration Project, the National Academy is uniquely positioned to host these dialogues.

To assist the National Academy and the Department of Homeland Security, the National Academy has assembled a Panel of Fellows to provide analysis of the feedback gained through these dialogues. This Panel brings its substantial subject matter expertise to this project and assists by providing DHS with additional and independent review of the feedback received during the National Dialogue. Members of the National Academy Panel, along with brief biographical sketches, appear below:

Franklin S. Reeder, Chair

  • President, The Reeder Group;
  • Director, Office of Administration, The White House;
  • Positions with U.S. Office of Management and Budget:
    • Deputy Associate Director for Veterans Affairs and Personnel;
    • Assistant Director for General Management and Deputy Assistant Director;
    • Chief, Deputy Chief, Information Policy Branch;
    • Policy Analyst, Chief, Systems Development Branch.
  • Former Deputy Director, House Information Systems, Committee Staff, Committee on House Administration, U.S. House of Representatives;
  • Former positions with U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of Defense focusing on information technology and systems.

Beverly A. Cigler

  • Professor of Public Policy and Administration, School of Public Affairs, Penn State at Harrisburg;
  • Strategic Planning Advisor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University;
  • Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration and Director, Master of Public Affairs Program, North Carolina State University.

Donald F. Kettl

  • Dean, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland;
  • Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Political Science and Director, Fels Center of Government, University of Pennsylvania;
  • Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science and Director, Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
  • Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, Vanderbilt University;
  • Assistant Professor of Government and Associate Professor of Government, University of Virginia.

Ellis M. Stanley, Sr.

  • General Manager, Emergency Preparedness Department, City of Los Angeles;
  • Former Director, Atlanta-Fulton County (Georgia) Emergency Management Agency;
  • Director, Emergency Management Agency, Durham-Durham County, North Carolina;
  • Director, Emergency Management Agency, Brunswick County, North Carolina.

Darrel W. Stephens

  • Former Police Chief, City of Charlotte/County of Mecklenburg, North Carolina;
  • Police Chief and City Administrator, City of St. Petersburg, Florida;
  • Executive Director, Police Executive Research Forum;
  • Police Chief, City of Newport News, Virginia;
  • Police Chief, City of Largo, Florida;
  • Assistant Police Chief, City of Lawrence, Kansas;
  • Police Officer, City of Kansas City, Missouri.