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Continental and Homeland Security

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 March 2009
DOI10.1177/002070200906400117
AuthorElinor Sloan
Published date01 March 2009
Subject MatterThe 2008 US Election—Challenges for a New President
Elinor Sloan
Continental and
homeland security
From Bush to Obama
| International Journal | Winter 2008-09 | 191 |
Surrounded by oceans and friendly neighbours, and faced throughout the
Cold War with a direct threat to its territory against which there was no
effective defe nce (nuclear armed ballistic missiles), the United States has
historically looked mainly overseas to guarantee its security. To many outside
observers, the obvious American response to the terrorist attacks of 11
September 2001 might have been to focus less on measures abroad and
more on those at home. After all, the strikes themselves shattered the notion
that oceans and friendly borders made the United States less vulnerable to
direct threats to its territory than countries not so fortunate in their
geography. And terrorism is arguably a type of threat against which it may be
possible to develop some effective defences. Yet the Bush administration’s
overwhelming response to the 9/11 attacks was to concentrate on the “away
game,” whether it was direct American intervention in countries like Iraq
and Afghanistan, or assistance to other governments in combating terrorism
in places like the Philippines and Africa.
Elinor Sloan is associate professor of international relations in the department of political
science at Carleton University. She is a specialist of US and Canadian defence policies and
the author of, most recently, Military Transformation and Modern Warfare (Praeger, 2008).

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