First, select one (1) of the following critical infrastructure sectors that you have an interest in (links take you to their sector specific plans https://www.cisa.gov/2015-sector-specific-plans). Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing, Dams, Energy, Financials Services, Food and Agriculture, Healthcare and Public Health, Information Technology, Transportation Systems, Water Systems. “Critical infrastructure includes the vast network of highways, connecting bridges and tunnels, railways, utilities and buildings necessary to maintain normalcy in daily life. Transportation, commerce, clean water and electricity all rely on these vital systems.” So, I suggest you pick something that really matters to the nation.
Then discuss the most prevalent threats your chosen sector currently faces, as well as how a private sector organization within this sector could enhance its ability to provide its essential services when facing such threats and hazards. This latter section relates to private sector organization Continuity of Operations Planning, focused on current threats and hazards you address.
You can find the primary components of such a plan in the document Continuity Guidance Circular 1 (CGC 1) Continuity Guidance for Non-Federal Entities. Additional information concerning this assignment can be found below and attached.
Amplification: First chose a single critical infrastructure sector, say transportation systems. Then you address the most prevalent threats to that sector overall (say natural disasters and sabotage by extremists as two examples for this sector). Next you pick a specific private sector organization within that sector, say the Railway company CSX Transportation as one. Then you discuss how this private entity can enhance essential services based on those specific threats. In this final part you are basically outlining a Continuity of Operations Planning COOP for them. See this FEMA brochure on COOP.
2) Additional Instructions:
Make sure you read the instructions carefully and that you focus your paper on answering the assigned questions. This assignment is a research paper, not an opinion paper, so you need to use scholarly sources to support your thesis (see this library article How do I write a good thesis statement). Use formal academic writing and do not use the first person such as ‘I’ or ‘my’; see this site on academic writing style (scholarly voice). Make sure you use APA style 7th edition in-text parenthetical citations at the end of every sentence where you are quoting another’s ideas (or any information) that is not your own thoughts and words, like this (Bergen, 2015, para. 14). Citations are required for paraphrases as well, but not the page or paragraph number in that case. I highly recommend you use the APUS writing guide which can be found in the university library or at this link: APUS Research Writing and Style Guide. You are welcome to use supplementary sources to compliment the assigned readings based upon your research, but make sure you use only scholarly and credible sources (do not use open websites and you never want to use wikipedia for a college level paper). Also, dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as general news sites (like CNN) are NOT appropriate for college level research papers. A good example of what NOT to use is NSA.Gov1.info — not only is it not the NSA webpage, the site loaded with bogus information and if you scroll down to the bottom it says “This is a parody of nsa.gov and has not been approved, endorsed, or authorized by the National Security Agency or by any other U.S. Government agency.” Also, do not cite the weekly lessons as those are only basic information to start off the topic with. You need to use mainly scholarly and reputable academic books and journal articles. Refer to the guide provided to you as an attachment here titled Dr Gardner’s Toolbox that includes a section on “How to find scholarly research sources for HLSS Courses.” Also, see the APUS Library Homeland Security Program Guide for good sources, as well as the APUS Research Primer and the APUS Library Research FAQs. For formatting, the best option is to use the attached example paper as a template (for formatting purposes only). I also recommend you use the attached toolbox for crafting your paper, especially the section on How to write an effective college level research paper for HLSS Courses.
