"A Practical Introduction to Homeland Security and Emergency Management: From Home to Abroad serves as an extremely versatile, useful and timely addition to the homeland security field." - Jason Levy, Virginia Commonwealth University A Practical Introduction to Homeland Security and Emergency Management: From Home to Abroad offers a comprehensive overview of the homeland security field, examining topics such as counter-terrorism, border and infrastructure security, and emergency management. Authors Bruce Newsome and Jack Jarmon take a holistic look at the issues and risks, their solutions, controls, and countermeasures, and their political and policy implications. They also demonstrate through cases and vignettes how various authorities, policymakers and practitioners seek to improve homeland security. The authors evaluate the current practices and policies of homeland security and emergency management and provide readers with the analytical framework and skills necessary to improve these practices and policies.

The U.S. Army's Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) currently oversees contracts for the operation of chemical agent stockpile incineration facilities at four disposal sites. Because the period of time required to dispose of these chemical agents has grown beyond that originally planned, the Army is becoming concerned about the possibility of growing operational problems as the processing equipment ages. To help address these concerns, the CMA requested the NRC to assess whether current policies and practices will be able to adequately anticipate and address facility obsolescence issues. This report presents a review of potential infrastructure and equipment weaknesses given that the facilities are being operated well beyond their original design lifetime; an assessment of the Army's current and evolving obsolescence management programs; and offers recommendations about how the programs may be improved and strengthened to permit safe and expeditious completion of agent stockpile destruction and facility closure.