Master of Arts in Homeland Security

This degree is designed to provide broad coverage of the major homeland security threats, organization, and challenges through course study in homeland defense, intelligence and homeland security, terrorism, consequence management, and interagency government issues. Stud

ents may select courses based on their professional, personal, or research interests including weapons of mass destruction, crisis management, narcotics as a homeland security issue, terrorism, security management, intelligence methods, transportation security, information security, emergency management, and public health.

Degree Program Objectives

In addition to the institutional and degree level outcomes objectives, this degree seeks the following specific learning outcomes of its graduates. Graduates in this degree program will be able to:

• Evaluate specific domestic security challenges for the 21st Century that face the United States and other industrialized nations.
• Evaluate and propose changes at federal, state, and/or local levels, to reflect the evolving strategic policy issues associated with a statutory and presidential direction for homeland security.
• Recognize terrorist groups’ proclivities in order to forecast the risks, types, and orders of magnitude of terrorist threats most likely to confront the nation-state.
• Define and describe by example the statutory, policy, strategy and legal differences between homeland security and homeland defense. Describe the roles/missions of USNORTHCOM, and the DSCA mission, compare and contrast these with the DHS mission.
• Recognize the interdisciplinary nature of Homeland Security functions and be able to assess and integrate various functional areas.
• Evaluate existing policies, procedures and protocols by DHS and inter-agency community to allow seamless agency integration through prevention, protection, incident response and recovery scenarios. Validate literal and procedural alignment/compliance with the National Response Framework, National Incident Management System, and Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs).