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Backgrounder: New York Spurs Counterterrorism Efforts

Council on Foreign Relations

Author: Eben Kaplan, Assistant Editor
December 28, 2006

Introduction

After 9/11, many local officials began to believe they could not rely on the federal government, which failed to deter the plot, as their sole protector against terrorism. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina only reinforced these concerns. But regardless of Washington's capabilities, local governments play a distinct role in preventing terrorism and responding to disasters as they often have more intimate knowledge of the communities under their care. The cities that have taken the biggest strides are generally those facing the greatest threat from terrorism or natural disasters. New York City has done far more to protect itself than any other American city, experts say, and provides a model for other places seeking to bolster their civil defenses.

How do cities and states deal with the threat of terrorism?

While measures vary from place to place, most efforts fall into two categories: counterterrorism and disaster response. Local officials say efforts to address public safety threats are often similar. As Chief Joseph W. Pfeifer of the New York Fire Department told a recent CFR symposium, his agency’s core functions—responding to fires, casualties, contamination, and structural collapse—apply to the gamut of potential threats, from terrorism to natural disasters. This “all hazards” approach, as it is known, relates mainly to preparing all sectors of society for a disaster response, but the principle translates as well to counterterrorism efforts. Several cities, for instance, use an “all crimes” approach when allocating resources to prevent terrorist and other criminal activities. To fund these efforts, cities and states apply federal grants. “Relatively few cities are spending their own money on terrorism,” says Arnold Howitt, executive director of Harvard’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government. Since 9/11, these federal funds have eclipsed $9 billion nationwide.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.